NightBird
by GirlWhoLovesAnime
Summary: I always wanted to be free. Free to do whatever I wanted. I want to be free like the birds. To finally be free of this heartache, pain and sorrow. Now, I have that chance. I can fly now... Fly like a bird in the sky…
1. Chapter 1

NightBird

I always wanted to be free. Free to do whatever I wanted. I want to be free like the birds. To finally be free of this heartache, pain and sorrow. Now, I have that chance. I can fly now... Fly like a bird in the sky…

Author's Note: Hey everyone. This story is… Well, what would happen if a girl with Autism joined up with the Decepticons. Certain parts in this story are real accounts of what I had to go through with growing up. So… yes, I do have Autism. I had a hard life because of this disorder, so the girl in this story will represent me in a way. Just a warning though, some parts of this story will be hard for you all to read. *sighs* Okay… on with the show.

Oh one more thing: Please don't say that I'm putting myself in this story because I am not. I forgot what the Fanfiction term is but I'm not doing that. This is just... somewhat a recount of what happened in my life. If you all don't like it then fuck off. I have enough to deal with and mean comments and shit won't help me.

EDIT: I'm sorry if I was being rude and everything. After everything that's happened to me in the past few months I feel like I should write this story. Remember, only some parts are a recount of what happened to me. Other parts I made up for the story plot. (obiously) So, enjoy and whatever.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and other people who think they're better than us. Nightbird is my OC.

The night was beautiful. It covered the area in a comfortable blanket of darkness that was only lit up by the moon and stars. Some people that loved this time of night stayed up late and either stargazed, partied, or even just took the time to relax and look up at the blissful way the night surrounded and comforted them. To others, the night was a time of peace. But for some, it was horror.

A young girl about the age of 18 laid in her bed with the covers over herself. She was quietly sobbing and rubbing her arm where a bite mark was. It wasn't an animal bite, it was a human one. And she herself caused it. She would bite herself whenever she was angry or frustrated, which was rare. But lately someone has been making her take her anger out on herself more so than usual. The young girl recalled what had happened earlier on that made her not only angry, but scared of this person.

 _~Flashback~_

 _"I TOLD YOU TO TAKE OUT THE FUCKING TRASH! YOU DON'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!"_

 _An older woman in her 50s threw a plastic bottle against the wall. A girl moved out of the way and flinched when the bottle knocked over a glass vase. It hit the floor and a piece broke off of it. The woman kept yelling at the younger one, her face red with anger._

 _"SHIT! EMMA CLEAN THIS SHIT UP AND FOR THE LAST TIME TAKE OUT THE TRASH! I HAVE ENOUGH ON MY MIND WITHOUT YOU FUCKING SHIT UP!"_

 _"O-okay mama... A-and I'm sorry, I thought you were gonna take it out..."_

 _"JUST TAKE THE SHIT OUT!"_

 _Emma flinched when her mother stomped to her room and slammed the door. She sighed and got a broom and swept up the broken glass, putting it in the trash and taking it outside. She began walking back but stopped when a Crow landed next to her. She bended down and watched as the Crow dug its beak into the soil and pulled out a huge worm. Emma smiled, she loved all kinds of animals and it fascinated her how smart they are._

 _"You are such a beautiful Crow..." she whispered._

 _The bird looked at her and tilted its head, not understanding what the strange human was saying. Emma reached out to pet it but it spread its wings and flew away, heading towards a huge tree a few yards down. She watched it fly off and sighed. One thing she loved about animals was that they were free. Free to do whatever they wanted in life. She envied that. Emma wanted to do whatever she wanted to do without her overprotective mother ordering her around. Emma has a mild form of Autism, but that doesn't hinder her from doing the simplest tasks. Heck because of her disability, she can do things no other person can. Multiple talents at her disposal make her the envy of others and unfortunally a target for bullies. She tries to deal with the teasing and not let it bother her but deep down inside it does. In more ways than one._

 _Hearing more of the birds flying overhead, she realizes that she's been staring up in the sky for about ten minutes zoning out. Emma quickly rushes inside and closes the door, locking it. She then hears her mother calling for her and quickly runs to her mother's room. Inside she's putting on makeup and getting ready for work._

 _"Damn! What the hell took you so long?! It doesn't take ten minutes to take out trash!"_

 _Emma twiddles with her fingers and looks at her feet. She speaks in a small tone. "I was... watching a big Crow eat a worm by our patio. The bird was huge and..."_

 _"You've better not have been talking to a boy out there!" she turned in her chair and glared at her. "Because if you were I'll knock the shit out of you!"_

 _Emma quickly shook her head. "N-no! I wasn't doing that at all! I told you I was only watching a Crow!"_

 _"DON'T RAISE YOUR FUCKING VOICE AT ME!"_

 _Emma quickly closed her mouth and tried to say something else but was interrupted. "I told you thousand of times to never raise your damn voice at me! I don't care if you were looking at a bird or a cat when I tell you to do something you fucking do it! And if you ever take time like that again I'll knock your teeth out. Understand?!"_

 _Her mother gave her an evil look and Emma quickly shook her head. She looked down and whispered to her. "U-Understood..."_

 _"Now I gotta run a late shift at work so I'll be back at around one am or something. You better not open this door for no one you hear me?"_

 _"...yes ma'am..."_

 _"Remember Emma, Fornicating with a disgusting boy and giving birth to a baby is a Sin in God's eyes! So you better not be doing any of that shit!"_

 _"I won't..."_

 _Emma left the room and shut the door behind her. But before she went inside she heard her mother talking on the phone. She carefully pressed her ear against the door and listened in to the conversation._

 _"Hey girl! Yeah I'm on my way. Emma? She's alright. I told her to do one simple thing and she even manages to screw that up. Huh? Yeah earlier she mentioned wanting to live on her own but I can clearly see she isn't capable of doing that. She doesn't do anything right so why should I let her live on her own? She's just too stupid to do anything right. I mean God, her Autism can't be making her this stupid and forgetful! Oh, did you hear about what Sarah did? Haha I know right?"_

 _Hearing enough, Emma goes in her room and shuts the door. She changes into her pajamas and stares out into space. Anger, frustration, fear and depression was on her face. Then she viciously bites on her right arm while holding in a scream. The bite draws a little blood and when she lets go she wraps it up in gauze she keeps under her bed. Then she gets under the covers and shuts her eyes tight, trying not to scream out in pain._

 _(I hate this! Why does she treat me like this?! Is it because I was born a retard?! Does she hate me?! Why dammit?! WHY?!)_

 _Emma slowly started to cry, upset at how her mother treats her. She didn't know why she had this mental disorder. All Emma wanted was for the insults to stop. She hated her mother but felt she couldn't do anything, even moving out seemed elusive to her. She wished someone would take her away from this world, take her away and erase her pain. ~_

Emma slowly fell asleep with tears running down her face. Outside her window, a bright ball of light zipped across the night sky then disappeared.


	2. Chapter 2

Nightbird

Author's Note: *sighs* ...enjoy.

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. Nightbird is mine.

 _(Thoughts)_

 _ **=Speaking Cybertronian=**_

The next day, Emma is brought to her high school by her mother. She goes to Jordan High in Long Beach, California. The drive to the school was quiet. Emma didn't like talking to her mother much and preferred looking out the car window. Soon they were at the school and she got out, but not before her mother says something that upsets her.

"Emma, remember what I said this morning. Focus on your schoolwork and not friends, because in this world, so called "friends" don't exist. Understand?"

She resisted the urge to yell and scream at her for that ridiculous comment. Instead she just nodded and spoke quietly. "...Yes mom..."

"Good, now go on. You'll be late. Man if I had the time I'd homeschool you. That way you won't be exposed to all the crap these stupid kids do."

Emma nodded and shut the car door. She watched her mother drive off and sighed. She hated living at home with her but at least she had some sanctuary at her school. She walked inside and took out her cellphone. She had time before the bell rang so she played Cookie Jam. Emma loved games and puzzle games was her favorite. As she played though, she didn't notice two boys walk over to her. She was so engrossed in her game that she didn't see them until one of them snatched the phone out of her hands. Looking up, she saw that it was the two boys that bullied her a lot. One of them wearing a red shirt looked at her phone.

"Ugh, Cookie Jam? That game is so retarded. But you would know eh Retard?"

The other boy laughed as he took the phone and played with it, he did something that caused the app on her phone to crash and for the phone to reboot itself. Emma frowned and quickly took back her phone.

"...leave me alone...I don't want to be bothered..."

"Nah nah nah! Nah nah!" Both boys teased her and laughed when they saw the angry look on her face. Tim and Bryan were their names, local boys that teased and made fun of people who were different. Most of the students either laughed at their antics or ignored them. But to Emma, they were tormentors. They teased and bullied her ever since she started school there, often making fun of her mental disability. Emma couldn't tell her mother about it or anyone else so she just (or tried to) ignore them. But today she was frustrated and wanted to be left alone.

"...leave me alone...I won't ask again."

She got up and left for the School Library but one of them pushed her from behind and she ended up falling, unfortunally in a puddle of mud on the grass. The boys laughed even harder when she got up and tried to get the muddy gunk off of her. She noticed other students looking and either laughed or shook their heads at the two idiots.

"Look at the retarded piggy!" said Tim.

"Ya gonna roll around in the mud little piggy? Oink! Oink!" laughed Bryan.

In her mind, even though she only imagined it, she could hear everyone laughing and poking fun at her. She could see everyone pointing and laughing tauntily at her. Then, something in her snapped. She dropped her backpack and glared at the two that kept laughing at her. Then, in a split second she screamed so loudly it startled everyone around her including the bullies. Emma ran up to them and delivered a sharp uppercut at both boys. It was so strong that they both flew backwards and hit the ground hard. Blinded by rage, she began beating up Tim and Bryan so bad that blood ran down their noses and the blows left purplish bruises on their arms and other parts of their bodies. One of the students watching ran up and grabbed her off of them. His name was Felix and he was the only one that was Emma's friend. Well tried to be. Emma started screaming and kicking the air as she tried to free herself from his grip.

"Emma! Calm down, they're not going to hurt you!"

"LET ME GO! LET ME THE FUCK GO!"

Soon the School's Principal and Vice Principal arrived and they weren't happy with what they saw. Principal Martin looked around and saw the two boys barely getting up. He clapped his hands and yelled at everyone there.

"Alright everyone get to class! Now or detention for all of you!"

The students groaned and left for class, wanting to say to see the fight. Vice Principal Helen rushed over to the boys and helped them up. "You see what happens when you act like idiots? Come on, I'll take you to the Nurse."

As she and the boys left for the Nurse's Office, Emma was still screaming and trying to kick Felix in the face. But only when she heard the Principal's voice did she calm down.

"That's enough Emma Bowman."

She looked at him then at Felix. Looking down at herself she saw the mud drying on her clothes plus a little blood on her knuckles. Tears ran down her face as she tried not to cry. Principal Martin sighed and looked at Felix, who was rubbing Emma's back trying to calm her down. "Emma, go get cleaned up in the Girl's Restroom and meet me in my office. Mr. Ramsey? Can I speak with you for a moment?"

Both of them nodded as Felix went with Principal Martin while Emma went to the restroom to clean up. As she washed the mud and blood off of her she thought about what will happen to her. If her mother found out she beat up two boys at school she'll go ballistic on her. Her mother didn't tolerate bullies but since Emma landed the first punch she'll be the one to get in trouble instead of Tim and Bryan, who bullied her and pushed her in the mud in the first place.

Emma wanted to cry but she didn't. She hated the fact that everywhere she went she'd always get bullied or picked on. And her mother didn't make it any better for her. Emma looked in the mirror and wiped her eyes.

 _(Why does bad things happen to me all the time? I try to do everything right and I still get punished for it... What's the purpose of me being born if I screw up everything I touch? Life would be better for me if I was just dead...)_

She didn't want to go to the Principal's Office, but she had too. Exiting the restroom she made her way towards what she called "Her Death Sentence".

Inside the office, Felix explained what happened between Emma, Tim and Bryan. Even showing video footage one of his friends shot on his cellphone of them taunting her and pushing her in the mud. Mr. Martin shook his head at what he saw. Jordan High School had a No Tolerance for Bullies policy and anyone caught doing it got suspended or expelled.

"And that's all what happened? How long has this been going on?" Mr. Martin asked.

"I think two months sir." said Felix. "It's not Emma's fault, she can't handle people bullying her and when those two assholes did that it just set her off. Thanks to her disability she can't handle all of that nonsense. It's bad enough her mother puts her down all the time, she doesn't need to go through that here."

Soon Emma entered the room and shut the door behind her. She looked at them meekly as she sat in the chair next to Felix. She didn't look at them and stared at the floor, waiting for those words to be said. _("Emma I'm going to call your mother and tell her everything that's happened." If he does... Well... I'm dead anyways...)_

Mr. Martin cleared his throat and spoke quietly to Emma, knowing that she didn't like people shouting or yelling at her. "Miss Bowman? Mr. Ramsey told me everything that happened including showing me some video footage on his cellphone. Since those boys started this mess they'll be the ones to be punished, not you."

She looked up at him and spoke in a quiet voice. "...R-really?"

The principal smiled and nodded. "Of course, you have enough going on and I know you don't need your mother to get involved. Hell she even scares me a little..."

"S-so... I'm not in trouble?"

"Nope. You can go to class now, and don't worry about Tim and Bryan. I'll deal with them."

Emma didn't smile but her eyes told him that she was happy she wasn't in trouble. She got up and left the room. Mr. Martin sighed and rubbed his head. "This is going to be a problem..."

"What sir?" asked Felix.

"Tim and Bryan are cousins and they live with Brandon Warshaw. Who just so happens to the School's Superintendent... Shit. If they tell him what happened..."

"Then call him and explain to him what happened! Knowing those two they'll lie and say Emma's been bullying them!" Felix didn't like where this was going. He was the only person in School that cared about Emma and hated the fact those two were gonna try to pull something.

"Don't worry I'll call him. I just hope he listens to reason... Your class doesn't start until 3 period so you wouldn't mind staying here to validate this?" Mr. Martin asked as he got the phone and called the Superintendent.

Felix shook his head and smiled. "No sir. I don't mind."

Mr. Martin heard the other line pick up as a gruff voice spoke on the other end. "Hello? Ah yes Mr. Warshaw? Listen I have something to tell you..."

...

~5 hours later, after school~

Emma was outside of school waiting on her mother to pick her up when Felix walked up to her. She knew that he was there but didn't even give him a glance. Thanks to her Autism she doesn't like looking at people in the eye, or them staring at her.

"Hey Emma. You alright?" he asked.

"….no. And why do you care?"

"Well, I'm your friend aren't I?"

She stared at him for a few seconds before looking away. "…..my mother says I'm not allowed to have friends…."

Felix looked taken aback by that. "What? Why did she say that?"

"….She says having friends is useless and not to trust anyone on this earth…." She sighed and rubbed her arm. "And…. If she drives up now and sees you standing next to me she'll flip and try to either hurt you, or me. Please leave…"

Felix frowned. He didn't like the fact Emma's mother was so controlling over her. Not having friends or the chance to experience the world is like someone being locked in a cellar 24/7. But there was nothing he could do about it. As he got ready to leave he heard her say something that made him smile.

"…..Thank you….for being a friend to me…."

He turned around and gave her a big grin. "Anytime Emma. See ya later!"

Felix walked off, leaving Emma standing at the curb waiting for her mother to arrive. She had a small smile on her face though. _(Well… at least I have one person to call a friend…)_

… _.._

~2 hours later, at home~

Emma was in her room doing her homework when her mother walked in. Glancing up, she noticed an angry expression on her face. She continued doing her homework like she didn't notice her until she spoke.

"Emma, I just got a call from your Principal's boss. Why the hell didn't you tell me these two little bastards were bullying you?"

Looking up, she spoke quietly and adverted her eyes. "Well…. You said to ignore people who bully you so I've been trying. But those idiots kept bothering me…" She put her homework to the side and stood up, curious about something. "Mr. Martin said I'm not in trouble for defending myself though…. S-so why did his boss call you?"

Emma's mother sighed heavily and crossed her arms. "The reason he called was to put you on a three-day suspension but I explained how your disability makes you act. So he dropped it. Those little bastard boys of his well… that's another story."

Emma was kinda shocked to say the least, but she was glad she wasn't in trouble. She sat back down to finish her homework until her mother spoke up. "By the way, if anyone tries to bully you again tell me instead of keeping it to yourself. Alright? I have enough to deal with and I don't need to deal with some prick bullying you."

"Okay…" She watched her mother leave the room and shut the door behind her. Emma thought she was going to get in trouble for fighting those bullies but she thanked God that didn't happen. Still, it was rare for her mother to do something like that for her. Emma sighed and kept on with her work, hoping that tomorrow will be a better day for her.

~The next day~

Her mother went to work early so Emma was allowed to take the bus. But she didn't like the school bus too much, there were other people on here that would snicker and talk about how retarded she is. Making up her mind, she decided to walk to school. She rarely got to walk to school so this was a nice change of pace for her. She has an excellent memory when it comes to where places are so she remembered the route to her school. Looking around she saw various cars pass her by, she liked not only animals but all kinds of vehicles. Sports cars were her favorite kinds. As she walked she saw one that was one of her favorites. A Saleen Mustang sitting in a parking lot of a 99c Store. It was the newer model and looked sleek and powerful. One thing that stood out about it was the color: it was black all over except for the doors which were white. Emma walked over to the Mustang and gasped, it was a Police Cruiser.

"Amazing…. I didn't know the police were using Saleen's now…."

She put her hand on the hood and felt it shudder at her touch. Not thinking much about that, she grinned at how beautiful the car shone under the sunlight. "….So beautiful…. I wish I had a Mustang like this…." Emma walked around the car and saw something unusual written on it, along with a logo that looked like an evil cat. She leaned in to get a closer look.

" 'To Punish And Enslave?' That's odd for a Police car to have…."

"What of it girlie?"

Spinning around she saw a man much taller than her, about 6'8 with a strong build. He wore a cop uniform and had the same cat-like logo on his arm. His eyes were strange though, they were a dark reddish color. Emma stared at his eyes; they looked ready to pierce any soul that looked into them. She didn't know why, but she didn't mind staring into those eyes. The cop noticed she was looking at him funny and frowned.

"What? What are you looking at?" he said in a gruff voice.

Emma quickly looked away and stared back at the car. When she didn't say anything, the cop got irritated and walked in front of her, making her jump and stutter.

"I-I-I'm s-sorry…. I was j-j-just adm-admiring your c-car…. I'll go now…"

She turned to leave but felt the officer grab her arm. She looked back at him and wondered what he was going to do. _(Oh no…. I hope he's not upset at me for putting my hand on his car…)_

"You were admiring it? That's strange for a huma-I mean someone to do."

"Huh?" The officer let go of her arm as she turned to face him. "W-why is it strange?"

The man scoffed and crossed his arms. "Cops aren't exactly liked around here. You watch the news so you should know."

"Oh…" Emma shuffled her feet and kept staring at the car, wondering what else to say when she noticed three men run past on their bikes and throw mud-filled balloons on the Mustang's hood. She jumped backwards, not wanting to get covered in mud again as the men laughed and sped off yelling words she didn't want to hear repeated.

"Son of a bitch!" The cop growled and started chasing them on foot. Emma was shocked to see him run that fast. She looked back at the Mustang and shook her head, the right side of it was covered in mud.

"…..poor Mustang….I'll clean it up for him…."

She got out her water bottle and some paper towels she kept with her. She poured the water on the side and got to work wiping off the mud. After a few minutes all the mud was gone and she smiled, glad to see it shine again. The cop came back, a satisfied look on his face. Emma thought that maybe he taught those guys a lesson. When he walked up he saw that the mud was gone. He looked at Emma who was fiddling with her fingers and shyly looking at him.

"Did you clean all this up?"

"Y-yes sir… What t-those guys did w-was mean… I-I hope you don't mind…"

The cop saw that no speck of mud was left on it. He looked back at her and smirked a little, putting his hand on her shoulder. "Heh, thanks girlie. It's rare I'd be shown some compassion around these parts." Emma smiled and shook her head. "You're welcome sir… I like Mustangs so, seeing those bullies do that was upsetting…"

"You like Mustangs?"

She nodded. "Yeah. Out of all the sports cars I like, Mustangs are my no. 1 favorite."

"I see… Hey, I don't usually do this but wanna ride to school? If you kept walking at this pace you'd be late."

Emma looked at her cellphone and gasped, school starts within 5 minutes! She'll never make it there on foot. But she remembered her mother saying not to talk to strangers or get inside of one's car. She looked at him and saw his reddish eyes staring back at her. He's an officer so technically he's not a stranger, and for some reason she felt like she could trust him. Shrugging her shoulders she agreed to take him up on his offer.

"Okay… I'll be late if I kept on walking…"

The cop grinned. "Great. Hop in."

Emma saw that the car door opened by itself and gasped. "Wow! An automatic door!? That's so cool!"

The cop chuckled a bit as he got in. "Yeah, automatic all right…"

They drove off towards the school, expertly weaving in and out of traffic. Emma was looking around the inside of the vehicle, it was amazing… She thought she'd never be inside one of her favorite cars and here she is inside of one! It was a dream come true for her. The cop watched her actions towards the car and inwardly smirked.

 _(Maybe she's the one suitable for that experiment… Considering how much she's so trusting of people…)_

"Um, excuse me but… I didn't get your name?"

"Oh? Hm, it's Barry Cade."

Emma giggled at how his name sounded, which made him frown. "What's so funny?"

"It's your name Mr. Cade. It sounds like the word 'Barricade'. Don't you think so?"

 _(Hehe… You have no idea…)_ "It does doesn't it?"

Emma nodded and looked out the window, rubbing her hand on the seat. The seat felt soft to the touch and comfy as well. She was so lucky to have gotten a ride in this Mustang. She didn't know that every time she rubbed the seat, the car would shudder a little along with the officer, as his form would seem to fizzle out a bit.

 _(Damn… she has no idea what she's doing to me…)_

Soon they arrived at Jordan High School as the rest of the students entered the main door. Barry parked out front as the car door opened by itself again. He seemed to notice that the girl was hesitant on exiting. So he questioned her about it.

"What is wrong now? This is the right place isn't it?"

"….yes…. I just wish I didn't have to go to this school… some of the people there make fun of me…."

 _(So that's the reason?)_ He thought. Barry poked her arm to get her attention. When Emma looked at him she saw him frowning. "Listen, I had to deal with people's shit before. So don't let them get to you. And if they do," He made a fist in his hand and lightly punched her arm with it. "Just knock the fucking shit out of them." He saw the girl in his seat smile a little and make a fist with her hand.

"Okay… Thank you for the ride Mr. Cade. And I won't let them get to me either…"

Barry grinned. "Good. Oh, what's your name anyway?"

"It's Emma. Emma Bowman." She smiled and got out of the car, closing it behind her. She waved at him and ran inside before the bell rang. Barry decided to do some research on his computer about this girl. What he found was disturbing.

"Well no wonder she's so damn timid… Not even my Creator was this harsh towards me…"

He heard the sounds of something changing shape in the backseat, then felt his form being poked by a skinny metal-like finger.

 _ **=Harsh about what Barri?=**_

Barry glanced back at the metal being looking over his shoulder at the computer. It made lots of twittering and grinding like sounds as it hacked in and downloaded what was on the monitor. When it was done it stared at him, tilting its head.

 _ **=Barri barri? You're searching up on that human femme? Why?=**_

"Because Frenzy, I believe she's perfect for Shockwave's experiment. Don't you?"

The robotic being called Frenzy looked at the computer again. On the screen was Emma's profile and everything else about her that was listed. When he read about her past history is when he shook his helm.

= _ **Wow… You right Barri. Soundwave doesn't treat us like how her creator does… Sad part is no one believes her.=**_

"I know… Humans can be so disgusting…." Barry started the car and drove off the school grounds, heading outside the city. "I think Shockwave will be happy to know that we found a test subject for him."

 _ **=B-but Barricade?=**_ He poked his arm again. _**=What if s-she doesn't cooperate with us?=**_

The cop or rather, his holoform smiled. Which scared Frenzy since his friend never smiles. _**=Cade?=**_

"Trust me Frenzy… She'll be willing to join us soon enough…"

 _ **=….I hope you're right Barri.=**_


	3. Chapter 3

Nightbird

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. Nightbird is mine.

 _(Thoughts)_

 _ **=Speaking Cybertronian=**_

 _::comlink::_

~Two weeks later…~

It's been two weeks since Emma met the cop Barry Cade and seen his Mustang. Ever since she first met him she couldn't stop thinking about him, or of his car. Besides his strange reddish eyes, there was something else about him that she liked. She just couldn't figure out what. Either way, Emma hoped to see the police officer again. At the moment she was walking out of school, since it was an early out for them, and started to walk home. Her mother would be working late and expected her to be at home at around 4:00, not knowing she had an early out at school, so she had time and decided to go to the local library. As she was walking however, she felt herself being pushed from behind and almost fell on the ground. She quickly turned around and frowned, seeing her tormentors Tim and Bryan glaring at her. Both boys were on a two-week suspension ever since Emma defended herself. But it seems like they were back and ready to torment her more.

"Hey ugly! What the fuck was that?! Because of you, our dad grounded us for the whole month!" Said Tim.

"Not only that, we got fucking suspended too! You had no right to kick our ass!" yelled Bryan.

Emma rolled her eyes. She couldn't believe what she was hearing from them. "….You two were the ones that bothered me… I had every right to protect myself from idiots like you…" She turned around to leave but Tim ran in front of her glaring at her. Bryan stood behind her and snatched her backpack, throwing it on the ground. Quickly turning around, she saw him give her an evil grin and tried to grab her backpack but as she moved they moved, blocking her path to escape.

"Leave me alone!" yelled Emma.

"What's the word I'm looking for…. Oh yeah, NO!" Bryan suddenly pushed her on the ground and kicked her in her side. Emma tried fighting back by biting his exposed ankle, which worked as he started screaming and hopping on one foot. Wincing in pain, she got up and took her backpack away from Tim, who was going through it and pulled out a Drawing Pad.

"WHAT THE FUCK?! SHE BIT ME!"

Tim laughed and shook his head. "The retards always bite, you ought to know that by now." Going through her pack, Emma noticed her drawing pad wasn't inside. Looking up she saw Tim going through the pages and carelessly ripping them as he looked. "Ew, this is a pathetic attempt at drawing. What is this? A Mustang?"

"Give that back!" She made a grab for it but the boy held the book up high so she couldn't reach it. Both boys saw that she was trying not to cry at their treatment of her and started busting up laughing.

"What? You gonna cry little baby?" teased Tim.

"Little babies that misbehave get a Time Out!" said Bryan. He slapped her across the face and pushed her down to the ground. Since no one else was around to help her she tried fighting back but got pushed to the ground again. At this point she gave up and started crying, clutching her throbbing side as she curled into a ball. She could hear their taunts and laughter as she cried.

 _(What am I doing? I can't fight back…. I can't even defend myself against mom's taunts…. I wish I could just die and be at peace…)_

Tim and Bryan kept up their bulling until one of them screamed in pain. Bryan looked behind him and saw a police officer pick up the other boy and throw him on the ground. Then he made a grab for Bryan and held him up in the air. The boy struggled to break free but felt like he was in a death grip. The officer glared at him and spoke in a threatening tone.

"Listen you little bag of shit… If I ever see you or your friend bully her again… I'll rip out your insides and tear out your fucking heart… You hear me?"

The officer's piercing red eyes made Bryan shrink back in fear. He couldn't speak and felt his pants get wet at the sight of them. The officer, not getting a response, shook him and yelled in his face.

"I SAID IS THAT CLEAR YOU PIECE OF SHIT?!"

"Y-YES SIR! W-W-WE'RE SORRY! PLEASE LET ME GO! ME AND MY COUSIN PROMISE TO NEVER BULLY HER AGAIN!"

The officer grinned evilly and dropped him. "Good. Now get the fuck out of my sight…"

Bryan ran over to Tim and both ran like someone was after them. Emma, who was watching the whole thing, stood up and winced. Her side and her right cheek was hurting her bad.

"M-Mr. Cade?"

Barry grabbed her things and returned them to her. "You alright?"

She nodded and held her bag close to her. She wanted to cry again from the pain but didn't, but a few tears slipped out and she quickly covered her face. "T-thank you…"

"Whatever… At least you tried to fight back. I never expected the ankle-biting."

She looked up at him and whispered. "Y-you saw?"

He nodded. "Yup. Even though you're a femme, you got balls for pulling that trick."

Emma smiled a little as she wiped her tears away again. "T-thank you... Again..." She turned to walk away but gasped in pain. Her side hurt badly and no doubt a bruise was forming there. A small bruise was even forming on her cheek, yet she kept trying to walk home. Barry shook his head and sighed. _(Damn... Even she doesn't deserve this...)_ He walked over and gently picked her up bridal-style and brought her over to his car. Emma blushed and stuttered, startled by the sudden action.

"W-w-what are you d-doing?! Ow!"

"Jeez! Calm down! You have bad injuries so I'm driving you home. Quit squirming, you'll make it worse."

She calmed down a little and looked away, feeling even more embarresed. "O-oh... okay... um, sorry Mr. Cade."

The cop didn't say anything as he carried her to his car, the door opening as soon as they got close. He sat her inside and got in the driver's side, both doors closing as the engine turned on as he drove off the school grounds. He looked at her and saw that she kept rubbing her eyes, obiously a failed attempt at not crying. Even though he didn't care about her injuries, he felt compelled to ask her about them.

"You in pain?"

Emma slowly nodded her head, not in the mood to talk. She felt her seat warm up and vibrate gently to give her some kind of relief from the pain. She relaxed and turned her head in the seat. As they drove he heard Frenzy, disguised as a radio in the backseat, speak to him through the comlink. _**::Barri Barri? Are you gonna take her to Shockwave now?::**_

 _ **::No Frenzy. Not yet.::**_

 _ **::Why? Shockwave said to bring a suitable human for his experiment.::**_

 _ **::I know. I'm curious to see why she acts the way she does. I don't believe everything I read in her file is the truth, there's got to be a reason why she is glitched.::**_

He could hear Frenzy sigh over the comlink. _**::She don't look glitched. Ugh, I don't understand humans. If one of their own is glitched they shun them or terminate them. Don't get it at all.::**_

 _ **::I don't either...::**_ Barry glanced over at the girl in his passenger seat and saw that her eyes were closed, but she wasn't asleep. They drove around for a while in silence until Emma spoke up.

"Mr. Cade?"

"Hm?"

"Um... My mother doesn't know that school let out early... so... is it okay if I stay with you for a while? I-if you're not busy or anything..."

He raised an eyebrow and looked at her. "Why? You don't want to go home? That's where I was taking you."

She shook her head. "No... I don't want my mother asking questions... She already thinks I can't take care of myself..."

Barry shrugged. "Fine. I'm not doing anything." He turned down a street where the 99c Store was and parked at the far end of the parking lot. Cutting off the engine, he turned to her and saw her looking at him. "Tell me something, why don't you want to go home?" Of course he already knew why, but he needed to hear from Emma herself. Emma stared at him for a few seconds before looking away. She rubbed her arm and wondered how she was going to answer him. A few minutes went by and she hasn't said anything, which made Barry groan and rub his head.

"Fine. Don't say anything. I was only curious."

"...I'll tell you if you want to know sir. B-but before I do I want to-to ask something."

"Ask away."

Emma took a deep breath and closed her eyes, then opened them again. "D-do you know of a place people like me can... can start a new life?"

"A new life?"

"Yeah..."

Barry folded his arms and stared at her, his reddish crimson eyes staring back at Emma's light brown ones. He could see not only fear but determination in them. He wondered why she would have fear in her eyes? Could something be happening at home with her mother? He decided to listen to her and find out about her problem. "Well... There IS a place you can go to. My friend is looking for someone to try out an experiment on. You could say its like having a new life and new identity. If you want you can leave whatever problems you have behind and start out that new life."

Emma blinked. She couldn't believe that the police had that option. "R-really? The police has this option for people like me?"

"The Police know nothing about it. It's a secret that only I know of. But if you really want to start a new life, you're gonna have to tell me why you want to leave your old life behind."

Emma in all honestly didn't want to tell him. Because as a cop everything he'll hear he'll have to report to the police station. And she didn't want the hassle and drama of cops knocking on her door and asking questions about abuse. She was going to ask but Barry beat her to it.

"By the way, this will stay between us. I may be a cop but this won't be spread to the other cops. Okay?"

She breathed a sigh of relief. Well that part was over, now she can tell him why she wanted a new life. "Well... Mr. Cade? The reason I want a new life is because... I want to escape. Escape living under mom's roof. You see, um... I was born with a mental disability called Autism. Because of this I'm kind of slow on certain things. But the upside is that I can learn faster just by watching or someone teaching me, I may not look it, but I'm really smart. The only good thing about it is that I have a lot of talents, one of them being able to hack into computers. I rarely do it though. A-anyway the main reason I want to leave is because my mom... she always treats me like crap just because I have this disablity. People think that just because somethings wrong with you they have to treat you like crap and stuff. It's not right. I've suffered verbal abuse from her bullying me. Not only that, I get bullied at school because of it. You saw those boys beating me up, they always tease and pick on me. I've always been bullied ever since I learned how to speak and I'm sick of it! I've even thought about killing myself because of all the hurt and heartache I've endured over the years..." She paused to wipe her eyes as tears began to fall. "I feel like a bird trapped in a cage, with no where to go, always having to suffer the constant bullying... I want to be free to do whatever I want!"

At this point she was crying into her backpack, hiding her face so the cop wouldn't see her tears. For once in his life, Barricade felt sorry for this human. As did Frenzy, who was listening in. Then he did something that surprised even himself: He reached over and brought her closer to him, giving her a hug. He let her cry out her frustrations as he gently rocked her back and forth. Frenzy, using his visual scanners to see, was equally shocked at what he saw. But said nothing as he watched his friend calm down the crying girl. Soon she stopped crying and hugged him tighter, not wanting to let go of him. She felt stupid though, she only met him once and already she was spilling out her thoughts to him. Emma didn't know why, but in her heart she felt like she could trust him. But still felt stupid for acting like a cry-baby. She felt the cop gently push her off of him and wipe the tears off her face. Looking into his eyes, she saw that they were a little brighter than normal.

"Listen Emma, just because you're disabled doesn't mean you should feel that way about yourself. From what I've heard from you, you have a lot of good abillites at your disposal. You really hack into electronics?"

She nodded. "Yes... but I try not to do it that often... I don't want to get caught..."

He grinned. "I think it's a great ability to have. Now I believe you."

"Huh? Believe me?"

"Yeah. I looked up your personal file and saw some things that disturbed me. Is it true you tried to run away years ago? All because you wanted to be free from your mother?"

Emma looked down and nodded. "Yeah... She yelled at me because... because I kept getting her dircetions wrong... I freaked out and ran away, even trying to jump off a bridge once..."

Barry sighed and rubbed his eyes. No human should go through this, no matter how much he didn't like them. Treating her that way all because she had a glitch? Some of his friends have glitches and not once did they get bullied. He felt like cursing out the poor girl's mother, the nerve of that bitch. Now, he wanted to help her out more so than ever.

"Hey, do you want to escape now? Turn back on this life and begin anew? Just say the word and we're out of here."

Emma thought about it for a few minutes. If she ran away again, her overprotective mother would surely find her, but somehow she doubt it was possible this time. If she went with him, will she be free? Free from all the tormentors and heartache? After thinking about it she looked up at Barry, who was waiting patently for an answer.

"Let's leave. Right now."

Barry smiled in an somewhat evil way. He started the car and drove off the parking lot, heading out of town. "Oh, one of my friends is a hacker so he'll make it to where you disappear. You know the term 'Off the Grid'?"

Emma nodded. She didn't care anymore. She finally was going to have the life she wanted to have. As they got on the freeway she suddenly felt sleepy. She tried to keep her eyes open but felt them get heavier. She heard Barry chuckle and pat her arm.

"You must be tired. Sleep. I'll wake you once we get to our destination."

"...Okay... I trust you Mr. Cade..."

Soon Emma fell into a deep sleep, her backpack falling on the floor. Unknown to her Barricade released a sleeping gas that caused her to fall asleep. Frenzy decided to transform into his robotic mode and look over at her. He gently poked her cheek and saw that she was asleep. He giggled and poked the cop's arm.

 _ **=Hehehehhehe! Gas worked! Hey Barri barri! Never seen you so sentimental, to a human no less! I'll admit I do feel sorry for her.=**_

 _ **=Heh, well she doesn't deserve that kind of treatment. You could say I'm happy to help her.=**_

Frenzy made some twittering sounds and grabbed Emma's backpack. Only things in there were her schoolbooks, a drawing pad, a laptop, and her cellphone. He decided to look through her phone as a thought came to him, causing him to laugh.

 _ **=And what is so funny?=**_ Asked Barricade.

 _ **=Squishy girl said that she trusted you! I wonder how she'll feel once she finds out who we really are? Hehehehehe!=**_

Barricade, or rather his holoform, shrugged. _**=Don't know. But I have a feeling she'll see us as her new family. Now Shockwave can stop bugging me about finding a willing human. Emma's willing enough to go through with the experiment.=**_

 _ **=Uh huh! Uh huh! Ooooh! She has Candy Crush on her phone!=**_

Barricade laughed at how his friend sounded. _**=You and your games...=**_ Seeing no use for his holoform, it disappeared as he sped on the freeway out of town, towards a destination where no human would ever think to go to.


	4. Chapter 4

Nightbird

Author's Note: I hope you all are enjoying the story. I recently found out that in the G1 Transformers there's a character named Nightbird. But the only difference is she's a Decepticon. But hey, didn't know at the time. This Nightbird in my story is mine and is in no way related to the G1 Nightbird. And in case you're wondering, Emma is 17 in here. Glad we got that cleared up. (-_-)

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. Nightbird is mine.

 _(Thoughts)_

 _ **=Speaking Cybertronian=**_

 _::comlink::_

"AHHH!" Emma found herself being slammed against the wall of her room. Groaning in pain, she tries standing up but is knocked down again.

 _"WHO THE FUCK DO YOU THINK YOU ARE!? I CATCH YOU IN HERE WATCHING THAT CRAP ON T.V?!"_

She stands up again and holds her arm, sore from the impact on the wall. She looks up at her mother, who's angry at her again for something that wasn't even worth getting upset over. Emma coughs a little and speaks in a small voice.

"Mom... I was only watching my Anime... There's no bad-"

 _"SHUT THE FUCK UP! ALL OF THAT IS NOTHING BUT JAP-CRAP AND SHOULDN'T BE EVEN BE ON THE AIR!"_

Emma had enough of her mother's anger and yelled at her. "Quit it! Quit talking like that! You sound like a raciest!"

That of course got her backhanded across the face. Blood ran down from her busted lip and hurt when she touched it. She moved until her back was against the wall. She was scared out of her mind, sure her mother yelled at her but she never put her hands on her until now. She blinked and could've sworn that her mother's eyes were turning red from anger.

 _(All of this... because I was watching a Pokémon movie? All Ash was doing was kissing Bianca... How is that bad?)_

Emma suddenly felt cold and saw that the room turned dark, she looked around but the only thing she could see was her mother's angry red eyes. Falling to the floor, she curled up and put her hands on her head. She still heard her mother's voice yelling at her but this time it sounded twisted and warped, like that of a demon. She soon heard others voices taunting her. At this point she started sobbing quietly, wishing for this nightmare she lived in to end.

"UGLY BITCH!"

"EWW! LOOK AT THE RETARD!"

"HOW COULD YOU MESS UP EVEN THAT?!"

"DAMN YOU'RE SO STUPID!"

"HEY RETARD! WHY NOT JUST JUMP OFF A CLIFF!"

 _(Stop it! Stop it! LEAVE ME ALONE!)_

...

Emma woke up screaming then quickly put her hand over her mouth. She looked around and saw that she was still in the cop car. Breathing heavily, she rubbed her face and tried not to cry at the nightmare she had. It felt so real that she was still shaking and trying to calm herself down. Once she did, she noticed that Barry wasn't there with her.

"Mr. Cade?"

Looking out the car window she saw that they were in some kind of abandoned factory. Unbuckling her seatbelt, she opened the door and stepped out. When she did, she realized that it wasn't a factory at all. It looked like some kind of futuristic building. The walls were dark and some had glowing lights on it. The ceiling was so high that it looked like it reached the sky. She also saw a huge door down the hallway, bigger than any door she'd seen before. She then wondered exactly where she was.

"Wow... Where am I?"

"You, little girl, are on a ship. The Nemesis."

Quickly turning around she saw only the Mustang but not where the voice came from. It sounded like Barry Cade's voice except it was deeper in pitch. "Mr. Cade? Um, where are you?" She suddenly heard laughing coming from the car itself and was surprised to see it move closer to her without a driver.

"Oh, I'm here Emma. Are you surprised to see a talking car?"

She slowly nodded as a small grin broke out on her face. "I don't believe it... y-you're an A.I!"

"HA! I'm not some pathetic scrap created by humans. This is only my disguise."

Emma tilted her head, confused by what he meant by that. "Disguise? If you're not an A.I, and if you're not a human, then... what are you?"

She got her answer when the Mustang started to shift its parts and transform. Emma watched in awe as the Police Car transformed into a bi-pedal robotic being with what looked like 4 red eyes. She backed up a little as it leaned down closer to her face. To say she was surprised was an understatement. All Emma did was stare at the robot as her mind tried to come up with an explanation about what she's seeing at the moment. It suddenly laughed seeing her face and gently poked her.

"So, you surprised?"

"...Wa?"

It laughed again and shook its head. "You can't even speak you're so shocked! Since you're incapable of forming words I'll tell you a bit about myself and where we are. My name is Barricade and I'm a Robotic Life Form from the planet Cybertron. We're capable of scanning and transforming into various vehicles, provided they serve a good use to us, and use them for disguises. This also serves to blend in so we don't stand out." A police officer appeared from out of nowhere and fizzled a bit before becoming solid. Emma blinked and walked towards the holoform.

"So... this is like a hologram..." She poked his arm and saw him looking at her grinning. "But solid..."

Barricade nodded. "Correct. This is called a Holographic Form Projector or Holoform for short. My kind uses these whenever we're out where humans are. Quite convenient if you ask me." The holoform disappeared in a shower of sparks, making Emma jump in surprise. She then looked up at his face, still shocked by the fact she's talking to a robot. Wait, something he said stood out to her.

"W-wait... You said 'from the planet Cybertron'. So are you... an Alien?"

"Yup. In the metal flesh kid."

She looked around the place for a bit, and then turned to him. "And we're on a... space ship?"

"That's right. I told you before, it's called the Nemesis. It's not moving right now, due to a fraggin' engine problem..."

"Oh..." Emma was amazed by the fact that aliens existed. It hasn't sunk in yet that she's currently talking to one. Curious, she reached out a hand and touched Barricade's arm. It felt warm to the touch, like a human's body heat. Barricade watched silently as the little human examined his arm. Normally he wouldn't even dare let a human touch him, as he thought they were nothing but disgusting insects. But this one was different. Somehow he knew that Emma wasn't like any other human he's seen. And by reading her files plus listening to her backstory he can see why she's far from normal. Barricade decided to silently watch her over the course of two weeks. From monitoring her at school to watching her at her home. And it took all of his willpower not to step in and kill her disgusting mother. During the first week he watched and listened to her mother berating her constantly. Emma seemed to take it in stride but as soon as she goes to her room she always would bite her arm and punch the air around her. Sometimes pulling her hair in anger. He would be lying if he said he didn't feel sorry for her. No creature should treat their young that way, glitched or not. He looked up the term 'Autism' and found out that it's a brain disorder that causes the person affected to develop slowly. There are various levels and by watching and listening to her, he assumed that she had the 'mild' version. Plus after further research, he found out that humans with the mild level of Autism have a higher brain capacity and function than normal humans. She wasn't lying when she said that she's really smart. He noticed her looking at him strangely and tilted her head.

"Are you okay Mr- I mean Barricade?"

"Hm? Yeah, I was surfing the web."

"Oh... Um... I'm curious... How do I start a new life here? Are there any other humans around?"

Barricade scoffed at that question. "No, If other humans _were_ around we would've killed them. You're only here because you're special."

That answer kind of scared her, but she knew that he wouldn't hurt her. He held out his hand and spoke. "Climb on, I'm gonna take you to meet someone. And you better hang on tight if you're afraid of heights."

Emma nodded and slowly climbed into Barricade's hand. She felt herself being lifted far up into the air and shut her eyes. She wasn't scared of heights, but the sudden motion of her being lifted that far up caused her to get a little dizzy. Soon she opened her eyes and gasped. This ship was ginormous! There were more giant doors around and not only that, she saw some other bots in one room talking in a strange language. This was amazing to see. She heard something odd and turned her head, seeing a strange smaller bot come out of Barricade's chest and run towards her. She stared at it as it waved and giggled.

"H-Hi! I'm Frenzy! Barri Barri's friend!"

"Um... Hi." She saw him poke her chest a few times and slapped his hand away, frowning. Frenzy snickered and made a grabbing motion with his claw-like hands.

"You got big squishies! Hehehe!"

"...Don't touch me. It's rude to touch women there."

"Oh? You shouldn't have such big squishies there! Poke poke!"

Frenzy tried poking her chest again but got his hand slapped away again. He laughed loudly seeing the angry look on her face. Barricade vented and glanced down at his hand. "Enough Frenzy, she doesn't like that."

"So what Barri? Squishy femme shouldn't have such big squishies! HAHA!"

Emma sighed and folded her arms across her chest, protecting her breasts from being poked again. "Your friend is perverted..."

"I know... He's weird."

"HEY!" Frenzy glared up at Barricade who only rolled his optics. The little mini-con turned back around and poked Emma's arm. "Hey hey! You were screaming earlier, did you have bad dream?"

Emma looked at him and thought back to when she woke up. She slowly nodded and spoke in a quiet voice. "Yeah... I-I don't want to talk about it..."

Frenzy poked her again, apparently not getting the message. "I bet it was really really bad huh? Was it? Was it?"

"Frenzy, shut up." said Barricade. He heard her scream in her sleep too before she woke up. And if she doesn't want to talk about it he won't ask. Frenzy huffed and folded his arms, pouting like a kid who didn't get any candy. Emma shook her head at him and looked around some more. They passed by a lot of rooms, including one that had a robot inside with red armor putting some things away. It was amazing to see that these creatures were aliens. _(Robots in disguise.)_ she thought. Soon they walked to a door that had a cat-like symbol on it, and Emma realized that same symbol was on Barricade. She pointed to it and asked a question.

"I saw that on your shoulder. What is it?"

"Heh, you'll see." He knocked on the door and heard a voice that said "enter". The door opened to reveal what looked like a Command Center. There, Emma saw all kinds of robots working on computers and things. But what caught her eye was a grey colored robot that was bigger than the others. It turned around and smiled when it saw Barricade.

"Ah, Barricade. I see you finally found a human I presume?"

"Yes Lord Megatron. And is willing to partake in Shockwave's experiment." He held out his hand as Frenzy climbed up to sit on his friend's shoulder. Emma gazed at the huge robot as it leaned forward and grinned, his razor-sharp teeth showing. _(Wa? Robots have teeth?! This guy is kinda scary...)_

The large robot, now known as Megatron, stared at her still grinning for a few moments. Was he examining her? Either way his gaze made her uncomfortable as she starting fidgeting. Then he spoke up, spooking her with how deep and raspy his voice was. "Hello fleshling... I am Lord Megatron, Commander of the Decepticons. Your designation?"

"U-um... E-Emma Bowman... S-sir... N-n-nice to m-meet you..." She didn't look at his face; it was unsettling to stare at him for some reason.

"Emma Bowman... Heh, such a wimpy name." he said disdainfully.

"...My mother gave me that name... B-but I don't like it either... Sir."

"Ah yes... Your "mother"..." Barricade sat her on a table and stepped back a little. Megatron circled the table as Emma looked on, somewhat in fear of what he was going to do. He put his hands behind his back as he spoke. "I've heard about her... Barricade here gave me a file he found on you and of her. She shouldn't even be called a "Mother". She's one of the worst creators I've ever seen." He leaned in close to her, making her take a step back. "Just because you have a little... glitch, that gives her an excuse to treat you like scrap. It's a shame really, she's suppressing your natural talents."

Emma nodded. "Y-yes... Uhh... Barricade said that... y-you can help me start a better life?"

"Correct youngling. IF you agree to my friend's experiment."

As if on cue, another huge robot walks in and stands next to Megatron. It was a dark purple color and had one huge red eye, like a Cyclops. It stared down at her unblinking, causing her to shrink back in fear. Megatron saw this and chuckled. "No need to fear him youngling, this is my friend Shockwave; a brilliant scientist. He is working on a project to fuse Cybertronian technology with human DNA. Not only will it provide the human with enhanced strength, it'll also protect them from your kind's unruly diseases."

"Really?" She looked at Shockwave. "You can do that?"

Shockwave's optic glowed a little in response. "Correct. It is logical to enhance human DNA in order for your kind to survive. Plus it'll help in controlling your glitch that you suffer from. It'd be illogical to refuse the offer."

Emma looked back and forth between them and crossed her arms, thinking. A hybrid of man and machine, like a cyborg. But if she doesn't do it, then they'll probably take her back home to where her mother will be waiting and get someone else... Speaking of her, she checked the watch on her phone. It read 2:45pm, another hour and her mother would be home expecting her to be in her room, if she wasn't... No, she can't be scared of her anymore. If she had a new life, then she'll be able to do whatever she wants, whenever she wants. Looking back up she saw them talking to one another in that strange language again. She made her decision.

"Um, excuse me?" she called to them and all three stopped to look at her. Resisting the urge to run and hide because of how scary they look, she walked forward a bit and took a few breaths to get her nervousness under control. "...I'll do it. I'll volunteer for the experiment. But I want to ask you something Shockwave."

The scientist tilted his helm. "Yes?"

"If I go through this... will you be able to erase my memory?"

Megatron and Barricade looked surprised to hear that from her. "Erase your memories? Why would you want that?" Megatron asked.

Barricade seemed to figure it out. "It's because you want to forget how badly you were treated right?"

Emma nodded. "For years, ever since I found out I had this, as you guys say 'glitch' I've been treated like crap. I'm sick of it and I don't want to remember all the things people have done to me." She looked away for a moment and shook her head. "Especially the horrid treatment my own mother did to me..." She then looked back up at them. "I'll do it ONLY if you're able to get rid of those nasty memories.

The three Mechs looked at each other and, what Emma assumed, were using some kind of comlink to speak to each other. She decided to wait for their answer and pulled out her phone, selecting an app to play Candy Crush. Frenzy, who was still there watching, jumped down from Barricade's shoulder and watched her play. Meanwhile, Megatron, Shockwave and Barricade were communicating through the comlink.

 _::Well? Can you or not? Either way she'll still agree to the experiment.::_ asked Megatron.

 _::I can create a version of the Cortical Psychic Patch to reverse the way memories are stored. But I don't know if she'll survive the procedure.::_ Said Shockwave.

 _::Hey, you don't have to erase ALL of her memories do ya?::_ asked Barricade.

Megatron and Shockwave stared at him for a few minutes, making the Police car feel like an idiot for asking. Megatron chuckled and glanced back at the girl, who was trying to keep Frenzy from taking her phone to play games. _::I see now... You like the fleshing, don't you Barricade?::_

 _::No! Pfft! Why would I? I just don't want her to lose that memory of her meeting me is all. I told her some useful information that would help her in case she got into fights.::_ He boldly pointed a finger in Megatron's face. _::And that doesn't mean I care or anything! She's nothing but a weak human!::_

The Commander laughed and brushed away his finger. _::Of course Barricade. Shockwave? If you need a test subject we can get another human to perform the reversal patch on.::_

 _::That won't be necessary my Lord. I did the calculations and I am 100% sure it'll work on erasing her memories, plus she'll be able to survive the procedure. How it'll affect her upon awakening is still to be determined.::_ Shockwave looked at Emma and did a quick scan of her brain, which he found to be abnormally active in certain areas. _::Hm... Certain parts of her brain are active when they shouldn't. And are increasing in power...::_

Barricade looked at Emma. _::Oh, she told me that she has many talents. One of them being able to hack computers. She rarely does it though.::_

 _::Really now? That is useful information... Maybe you can enhance that part of her brain during the procedure...::_ Megatron was already liking the human femme. He could tell that she has hidden abilities that could be used for the Decepticon cause. "Emma dear?"

Emma was letting Frenzy play with her phone, after the Mini-con kept bugging to play with it, and looked up at Megatron. "Yeah? I noticed you all were quiet for a while. Do you have internal communications?"

"You have a good eye for noticing. Yes we were speaking amongst ourselves and Shockwave will be able to erase your memories."

For the first time in years, Emma laughed and jumped up and down. "This is great news! Shockwave thank you so much for doing this! If this is the new life you promised me then I'll happily do the procedure!"

Shockwave's optic dimmed a little, his way of smiling. To others, this was his way of showing emotion. "You are most welcome Emma Bowman. Lord Megatron, I'll be in my lab." He bowed and left the room. Megatron looked back and spoke to him through his comlink. _::Shockwave, let me know when the Reversal Patch is ready.::_

 _::Yes my Liege.::_

Megatron stopped a solder to talk to him after the scientist left. Barricade turned and watched as Emma was doing a little dance with Frenzy, the poor bot was confused but danced along with her. He didn't show it, but he was happy for her. She'll be able to start a new life here with the Decepticons. Which reminded him... "Emma?"

The girl and Mini-con stopped dancing and looked up at him. "Yeah Barricade?"

"Do you remember the symbol you saw on me plus the door out front?"

She nodded. "Yeah. What is it?"

"That is the Decepticon symbol. It stands for our right to do as we please, whenever we want, whenever we want. It's like this, back on our home planet there was this war. We Decepticons hated the rules the other faction forced on us and rebelled against them. The war caused our planet to go into a "Hibernation Shutdown" and we can't return until we get all ten shards of the Allspark."

"Whoa... So, you're telling me that this other faction tried to rule over you and the others?" Emma asked.

Barricade nodded. "Yeah. Those damn fraggers caused our planet to not only shut down, but they caused all kinds of fragging problems for us. Imagine Hitler but ten times worse."

Emma covered her mouth. How could those evil bots do that to them? And now they're homeless because of it. She hugged herself and looked at him in the optic. "And this faction... Who are they?"

"The dreaded Autobots..." Megatron overheard their conversation and walked back over to them. He had anger in his eyes as he spoke. "The Autobots are nothing but monsters! Trying to stop us at every last turn! They're pure evil... I once considered the leader my own little brother, until he turned on me..." He made a fist in his hand. "Emma, the Autobots are what we have been fighting for thousands of years, fighting for the right to have a peaceful life again! If only we could find the Allspark shards, then we'll have a chance on restoring our beloved planet and finally go home."

Emma had tears coming out of her eyes, she quickly wiped them away and hid her face in the sleeve of her jacket. Megatron noticed this and gently removed her arm so he could see her face. "Do not weep youngling... I know it's hard to hear but it's the truth..." The girl looked up at him and suddenly smiled, determination in her eyes. Only reason she was brought here was because she wanted a better life for herself. But after hearing why they were here, she wanted to help them. Help them anyway she can.

"M-Megatron? After I get enhanced, I-I want to help you."

"You want to help us?"

She sniffled and wiped her eyes again. "Y-yeah. It's the least I can do... Since you're letting me stay here... It's not right! Why is it that when someone wants to be free, someone else thinks they can control their lives?! It's not right!" she yelled.

Megatron grinned. "You are absolutely right Emma! It's wrong to try to control other's fate! And their will! It's like being a slave, to have no freedom ever again…" He held out a finger to her. "It seems we have much in common my dear. Join us, help us fight for our right to be free, join the Decepticons and their goal!" Emma looked at his finger, then at Barricade and Frenzy. Both bots were grinning ear to ear (if they even had ears) and nodded. Smiling, she shyly reached out and grabbed Megatron's finger.

"I'll happily join and fight for what's right! I'll become a Decepticon!"

Megatron had an evil look on his faceplates as he gently moved his finger up and down, simulating a handshake. "Welcome to the cause dear Emma." He let go and stood up, facing the door. "Barricade here will show you around the ship then to your room. We prepared it for a human arrival. If you have any questions don't be afraid to ask." He then left the room. Barricade opened his hand, letting Emma and Frenzy climb on and left the room also. One of the Decepticon Drones L44-RY, known as "Larry" spoke quietly to another drone.

"Hey? You think Shockwave's experiment will work this time? So far three humans off lined because they couldn't handle the fusion."

A drone named L3-1F, known as "Leif" shrugged and kept typing on his computer. "Don't know man. She might survive this one. If not, then we can find another human."

"Eh, fourth time the charm right?" They continued working on their computers, not speaking anymore on the matter. Meanwhile, Barricade was showing Emma around the ship when she asked a question.

"Sorry to interrupt but... What are Allspark Shards?"

"They're fragments of the Allspark, a huge cube that can restore our planet to what it once was. But during the battle in Mission City it somehow separated into 10 shards and scattered across your planet. So far we only have three, the Autobots have two. The other five are still out there..."

She noticed that Barricade has a hint of sadness in his voice and rubbed the metal between his armor, making him look down at her. He saw her with a big smile on her face. "I wouldn't worry about it. Once I get the enhancement I'll be able to help you all. Hehe, I'll be a cyborg Cybertronian!" She heard him chuckle at that. "Thanks. And the term we use is Techno-Organic, but cyborg sounds better."

"Yup! I promise to help you guys out in any way I can Mr. Cade." Emma smiled at him and Barricade smiled back. Frenzy snickered and started poking fun at them.

"Barri barri loves squishy! Barri barri loves squishy!"

The Mech rolled his optics and hit the Mini-con on his head. "Shut up runt."

"HEY! NO HITTING! IMA TELL SOUNDWAVE!"

"I said SHUT UP!"

Emma laughed at how they're acting. It's like they're brothers. To think that meeting that Mustang for the first time would lead to her having a new life, and maybe a new family. To repay the Decepticons for helping her, she has to do everything she can to help them. _(Once I'm enhanced, I'll help out by finding the shards, then by destroying the Autobots... Everyone deserves to be free…)_

…..

An hour later, a Mech by the name of Soundwave has just finished erasing everything about Emma that was stored in Earth's computers. Even if someone noticed she was missing they wouldn't have the data to find her. She was officially off the grid. Megatron walked in and saw that he was standing there waiting for him.

"So Soundwave, you done with erasing all the files?"

He nodded and pointed to the screen, where a picture of her mother was displayed. "Ah, forgotten about her… Well, it's not like anyone would believe her if her daughter went missing. Since there's no record of her ever having a daughter." He chuckled darkly as he looked on the screen. Soundwave then played back a recording of his voice of something he said earlier.

" _Join us, help us fight for our right to be free, join the Decepticons and their goal!"_

Megatron waved him off, getting what he was trying to say. "What she doesn't know won't hurt her. Besides, she requested to have her memory erased anyway. Even if little Emma found out it was a lie it won't matter, because she'll be completely under our control. The Autobots won't know what hit them!"

Soundwave nodded, understanding why his leader lied to the human. It won't matter, as long as she's under the Decepticon influence. He saw Megatron turn to leave but glanced back at him.

"Oh, monitor her mother's whereabouts. If she causes a stir make sure to have her… disappear as well."

Soundwave didn't respond and went back to his computer, hacking into a local satellite and aiming the camera towards a small house in what looked like a run-down neighborhood. There the mother was just arriving home with a scowl on her face. Soundwave tilted his head as he watched.

"...This will be...Interesting..."

AN: Remember that ending scene in Pokemon: Latios and Latias where Bianca (who was Latias in disguise) kissed Ash before leaving? Yeah I remember my mom questioning me about it and I had to explain to her that it was a Pokemon, not a human. That was a headache...


	5. Chapter 5

Nightbird

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro. Nightbird is mine.

 _(Thoughts)_

 _ **=Speaking Cybertronian=**_

 _::comlink::_

Emma was enjoying the tour of the ship. She saw some Decepticon drones stare at her earlier and that made her a little nervous, but they waved at her and she waved back smiling a little. She noticed other drones that saw her either waved at her or looked at her in disgust. Frenzy explained that most of them didn't like humans in general. That was alright to her; from her experience her own kind can be mean and nasty to others. So she can see why they would act like that. She also met a bot that looked like part of a helicopter. Barricade told her that that was Blackout, another member who's kind of mean to everyone. When Blackout saw the human sitting in his hand he raised his weapon towards her. That got him a punch to the face by the Police Cruiser. After explaining who she was Blackout was surprised that a human willingly joined them, but not so surprised at how terrified she looked. He even laughed at her expression. Emma thought that he was a little crazy and might stay away from him... But the Mech she really liked was Knockout, the Decepticon Medic. She remembered seeing him in a room, which was the Medical Bay, before and liked how nice he was towards her. She also noticed that he flirted with a lot of bots on board the ship, most often with Barricade who threatened to ruin his paintjob. To her it was funny seeing Knockout fuss over his paint.

Right now they were heading towards a room prepared for Emma when a Mech stomped towards them. His wings looked like they were ready to break since they were twitching so much. Emma hid behind Barricade's fingers and watched as the Mech started yelling.

"Barricade! I told you to be discreet when on patrol! Soundwave picked up a Police report of three humans that almost offlined in an alley! And the human authorities are on a lookout for a Mustang police car speeding off!" The Mech folded his arms and glared at him. "Last thing we need is humans picking up on our signal, you need to be more discreet or I will-"

"It wasn't his fault!"

The Mech raised an optic ridge and looked down at the source of the noise. Emma peeked out from her friend's fingers and shyly waved at him. Frenzy hid behind her as the bot glared at them.

"Um... H-hello..."

"What the Frag? Oh... you're the human I've heard about from Lord Megatron... Tell me Cade', is she your pet now?"

"Frag off Starscream..." mumbled Barricade. "Emma is our new recruit, not a pet. And shut your damn mouth, those humans deserved that aft-whooping! They threw Mud on me!"

Starscream vented and leered at him. "Even if that were the case, you still had a job to do and I expect for you to do it right."

Emma didn't like how Starscream was acting so she boldly spoke up again. "Hey! It wasn't his fault! They were mean to him! S-so don't talk down to him!"

Barricade and Frenzy laughed at how Starscream's face looked when Emma yelled at him. He rolled his optics and walked past him, muttering to himself. "Stupid fleshing..."

Emma huffed and crossed her arms, irritated at the seeker. "Who is he and why does he act like he's the boss?"

Barricade chuckled. "That is Starscream, Second-In-Command and a VERY annoying pain-in-the-aft seeker. He acts like he's the boss of everyone on board..."

"I don't like him." said Frenzy. "He almost killed me during target practice!"

"Hey, Soundwave reattached your arm didn't he?"

"Yes... Still, that slagging hurt!" Frenzy grumbled in Cybertronian as Emma looked at both of them. The name they mentioned sounded familiar... "Are you two talking about Shockwave?" Barricade looked at her and shook his helm. "Nope, Soundwave. He's our Communications Officer and a Spy. Their names sound alike but unrelated."

"Ohhh... That explains the similarities..." She smiled at him. "I'd like to meet him!"

Barricade raised an optic ridge. "Uhh... really? I may not like him too much but he's... Weird. That's all I can say."

"Please Mr. Cade?" She gave him a 'puppy-eyed' look that got Frenzy laughing and Barricade secretly wanting to hide somewhere from the gaze. He quickly looked away and muttered. "Alright, alright, enough with the look... I'll take you to meet him." He didn't show it but he was trying not to blush, if the others saw him obeying a human like that he'll never hear the end of it. Emma giggled seeing his face. "Thank you!"

"Whatever..." he muttered. "And Emma? Try not to call me that when we're around others. Alright?"

She nodded. "I promise."

"He has three rooms he likes to use so let's check one of them." They walked down a different hallway until they came to one of Soundwave's rooms that he used. Knocking on the door twice Barricade called out to him and waited for an answer. When none came he proceeded to knock again until said bot himself opened the door quickly, making Barricade almost jump in surprise.

"Primus don't do that!"

Soundwave just stared at him then saw the girl sitting in his hand. He tilted his helm as he stared at her, which made Emma once again be a little nervous. She saw Frenzy hop out of Barricade's hand and sit on his creator's shoulder, hugging the side of his helm.

"E-Emma! This Soundwave! He created me and my brother Rumble!"

"O-oh..." Emma saw that he was still staring at her so she shyly waved at him. "H-hello... Soundwave... I uh… wanted to meet you." She tried smiling at him only for him to tilt his helm the opposite way. Barricade lifted his hand so she was near his mouthplates and whispered in her ear. "Soundwave doesn't talk much... But he's happy to meet you."

Emma whispered back. "Really? So he took a vow of silence?"

"Yup. Rarely talks. Hope you're good at reading expressions kid." Barricade grinned.

Emma chuckled nervously. "I hope so..."

Soundwave didn't hear their conversation about him since he was busy tickling his mini-con. Frenzy was laughing as he swatted away his finger. Soon another mini-con showed up that looked like Frenzy except he was a reddish color and immediately jumped on Frenzy tickling him also. "S-stop it Rumble! That tickles!"

The mini-con laughed and continued tickling him some more. "So what? You can't do nuttin'!"

Emma heard laughing and looked in Soundwave's hand where the two mini-con's played with each other. _(So that's his brother? And Soundwave created them? Amazing...)_

Soundwave looked at Emma and spoke up, almost smirking at her shocked expression.

"I saved and rebuilt them... So in a sense, I am their creator..."

She stuttered, wondering how he could've known what she was thinking. Barricade sighed and shook his helm. "Oh yeah, this slaggin' prick can read minds. So be careful what you think about around him."

"A mind reader?!" she squeaked out. Looking back at him she saw him smirking at her. Setting his mini-cons on his shoulder he used a tentacle and gently wrapped it around her waist. Emma tried backing away from the strange appendage when a thought came to her. _(He reminds me of that one Hentai Anime I accidently watched...)_ Realizing what she thought of a little too late she put her hand over her mouth and looked up at him trying not to blush. Soundwave did read her mind but never heard of this Hentai. Curious, he looked it up and suddenly grinned. Barricade noticed this and frowned, Soundwave never grins unless he's killing someone. And seeing his tentacle around Emma made him a little upset. "Hey, ya mind? You're freaking her out."

The Mech retracted his tentacle and continued grinning as he searched Emma's mind, he found out that she knew little of the world and had an innocent mind, knowing only so much. "Um... D-don't r-read my mind p-please..." Emma was still blushing at the thought she had of him, which made Soundwave keep grinning. "Then... Don't think so much of my 'appendages'..."

The way he said that word caused her to bring her hood over her head and hide her face from him. Barricade rolled his optics, whenever the Spy saw something he liked he always teased them. He brought Emma close to his chest and glared at him. "Alright quit it you fragger, I'm gonna take her to her room."

He turned to leave but Soundwave stopped him and pointed to his computer screen, there he saw a live feed of someone's house and instantly recognized it. It was Emma's house and saw that her mother was already at home. "Oh slaggit… forgot about that…"

Emma took off her hood and turned her head to see what they were looking at. Seeing her house on screen and her mother going inside the house made her gasp. Checking the time on her cell phone, she saw it was 4:45. Not thinking clearly she got nervous and panicked.

"OH NO! My mom knows I'm not at home and is probably calling the police to find me! Oh no! Oh no!"

"Calm down kid, you're safe with us." said Barricade. "Even if she called the cops let her, you been abused by her far too long."

"I know... but she has my cell phone number and is gonna call me..." Emma was scared and worried as she gripped her phone. Soundwave made a motion for them to follow him and lead them to another computer where all of Emma's files he collected were. Beforehand he copied them before erasing the others, knowing that the human would ask to meet him. He then pressed a button as the computer started deleting the file. Emma watched as everything about her was slowly being deleted. After it was done the computer said in an electronic voice "Files deleted." The girl turned her head and saw Soundwave this time with no expression on his face, other than his optics glowing in a playful way.

"Wow... So, even if she tries to find me, there won't be anything for the cops to look for?" she asked him. He nodded and pointed to her cell phone. Wondering why he was pointing at it, Barricade knew what he wanted. "Hey, that can send out a signal for the humans to find not only you, but us as well. Better get rid of it."

Emma looked at her phone and sighed, she liked her Android but didn't like the fact it could be traced to her location. So she gave it to Frenzy, who climbed into Barricade's hand along with Rumble. "Well... I don't need it anymore... Do you want it Frenzy?"

"YEAH YEAH! GIMMIE!" Frenzy snatched the device from her and began hacking into it, deleting everything on it and reprograming it to suit it to his tastes. Suddenly Rumble took it and ran towards the computer with his brother following.

"THAT'S MINE! GIVE IT!"

"NO! I WANNA SEE IT!"

Emma chuckled seeing the Mini-con brothers fight over the phone. She asked if she could walk around for a bit, Barricade hesitated but sat her down on the floor as she wandered around, keeping a close optic on her. Soundwave watched her as well but turned around to stop Frenzy and Rumble from fighting. Emma looked around his room and saw it looked more like an office than a bedroom. Then, out of the corner of her eye she could've sworn she saw something move and turned her head. She gasped as she saw a robotic cat jump off a ledge and land in front of her. She also saw a robotic bird fly towards her, landing in front of her. The cat was the size of a Tiger and had one red optic. It was jet black with a mouth full of sharp fangs and had a bladed tail. The bird had two reddish optics and was purple and black colored. It was a little bigger than the cat but looked vicious. Emma took a step back, amazed to see robotic animals but scared of them. She was even more amazed when they spoke to her.

"What's the matter fleshling? Cat got your tongue?" the feline snickered.

"I think she's afraid of us. Hehehe..." said the bird.

"W-who are you two?" Emma timidly asked. The robotic cat walked closer and spoke up first. "We are Master Soundwave's friends. I am Ravage, and this is my friend Laserbeak. So... You're the human who's going to join us Decepticons huh?" Ravage walked in a circle around her, slowly looking like he's stalking potential prey. The bird named Laserbeak snickered as he flapped his wings, flying towards her and landing next to her. "She doesn't look like much to me Ravage. Looks like a scaredy-cat fleshy."

Emma didn't like how they were looking at her so she tried backing away, only to hit the back of the robotic cat. Ravage and Laserbeak kept snickering at her until she got fed up with it.

"Quit laughing at me!"

They both stopped and stared at her for a bit then started back laughing again. Emma didn't like it, the way they were laughing at her. It reminded her of the constant teasing and bulling she had to go through. Temporarily forgetting where she was, she put her hands over her ears and started screaming at them. This caught the attention of Barricade (who was still watching), Soundwave, and the mini-con twins. They looked at her as she suddenly ran towards Ravage and punched him on the side of his head, then ran in the opposite direction and kicked Laserbeak in the chassis. Emma hit both of them with so much force that they fell backwards, despite both Mechanimals being heavier than her. Rumble and Frenzy started laughing at them as they struggled to get up. Ravage and Laserbeak didn't like being hit by a human so much, so when they got up they saw her glaring at them. They both growled at her.

"You think you could just lay your filthy hands on us human?!" Yelled Laserbeak.

"That's it, you are DEAD!" Snarled Ravage. They both charged at her, not caring that she was the new recruit. They wanted her dead. Soundwave looked at Barricade and saw him smirking a little. He tapped his shoulder to get his attention and pointed at her, who strangely showed no fear towards the Mechanimals. Barricade only chuckled and told him through the comlink to just watch.

What Barricade found out during his research on Autism is that humans with the mild level, like Emma for instance, had abnormal strength in their bodies. Like superhuman strength. Whether this was nature's way of protecting the lame he didn't know, but he knew one thing: Ravage and Laserbeak were in trouble.

Emma strangely felt no fear towards them, only the desire to kill them. She hadn't felt that way since she beat up those bullies Tim and Bryan. If she was going to have a new life here with the Decepticons then she needed to put some of them in their place. She saw the Mechanimals running towards her but she wasn't afraid. She waited until they got close enough, then ran towards Laserbeak and spun around, hitting his face with a roundhouse kick that knocked him on the floor. Ravage jumped over his friend and charged at her with fangs bared. Emma smirked and quickly ran in the other direction, then did something even Frenzy and Rumble thought was stupid: She jumped on the big cat's back and grabbed his ears, pulling them backwards while kicking his sides hard. Ravage snarled and tried to get the girl off but all she did was pull harder and laugh. Laserbeak got up and shook himself out of his daze, seeing Emma on top of Ravage trying to rein him in like a horse got him upset. He screeched and flew over to her, only for Emma to kick the cat's sides again in a way that made him turn around, getting the bird's claws in his face. Emma then jumped off and ran towards Barricade's footped, sitting on it and laughing. At this point she wasn't angry at them anymore, she rather liked the two Mechanimals. They both glared at her and got ready to pounce on her again but a tentacle stopped them. Ravage and Laserbeak looked up at Soundwave, who only shook his helm. Understanding what he meant they growled deeply, annoyed that they couldn't maim her.

"WHAT THE FRAG BOSS?!" yelled Laserbeak. "YOU SAW HER! SHE FRAGGING PUNCHED ME, IN MY DAMN BEAK!"

"AND SHE RODE ME AROUND LIKE A SLAGGING PACK-MULE!" yelled Ravage. "YOU JUST GONNA LET HER DO THAT?!"

Soundwave just stared at them and pointed at Barricade, who was now holding a giggling Emma in his hand. Frenzy and Rumble rolled on the computer desk laughing their afts off. The two Mechanimals growled again and just sat there, wondering how a human could've beat them like that. Barricade smirked at the human in his hand, he knew she had abnormal strength and wasn't worried about her getting hurt by those two idiots.

"I'm surprised you did that Emma. You got natural talent as a fighter."

She giggled. "Yeah… They were making fun of me so I had to do something. I used to have a pet who thought he could do whatever he wanted, so I simply showed those two who was the boss."

"WE'RE NOT PETS!" Ravage and Laserbeak yelled.

"Yes you are! Hahahaha!" said Frenzy.

"D'aww! Widdle kitty and birdie get their afts kicked?" Rumble and Frenzy both laughed until they felt themselves being thrown to the floor. Ravage jumped up and grabbed both of the Mini-cons, then threw them on the floor, where Laserbeak proceeded to (at least try to) peck their optics out. Soundwave lightly shook his helm at how his Mini-cons and Mechanimals acted. Barricade snickered at them until he heard an odd sound coming from Emma. He looked down and saw her yawning.

"Tired?"

She nodded. "Yeah… A little bit…"

"Heh, more like a lot of bit. Let's go to your room. See you later Soundwave." He turned and left the room. Soundwave then checked his computer while his charges fought each other.

Barricade found the room that was to be Emma's and sat her down. Curious, Emma opened her door and saw a bed and what looked like a bathroom. She looked up at Barricade and asked a question.

"Did this room belong to another human or to Frenzy and Rumble?"

He shrugged. "I know a Mini-con used to use that room years ago, but not any human. It's all yours."

"Oh." She glanced back in and smiled. It wasn't nothing fancy but she liked it. "Arigato Barricade."

The Mustang raised an optic ridge. "Arigato?"

"It means 'Thank you' in Japanese."

"Oh. Slag you humans speak too many languages, just pick one and stick with that." He grumbled.

"That'll take all the fun out of it." She smiled up at him. "It's fun to learn another language that's not of your own. You did."

Barricade had to agree on that. Earth's languages are diverse but annoying. Why humans spoke nearly 30+ languages was beyond him. "Eh, whatever. Now recharge."

Emma nodded and went in her room. "Night Mr. Cade." She shut the door and laid in her bed, it was so soft and comfortable that she fell asleep soon after laying in it. Barricade then left to his own room so he could get some recharge in. He idly wondered what Emma will look like after her enhancement. Will his charge be the same or have a different personality? He blinked and smirked a little at the thought.

 _(Heh, Can't believe I'm thinking about being a Guardian to her… This will be interesting…)_

AN: Review if you want. Also, I drew two drawings of what Emma would look like before and after her enhancement. It's on my DeviantArt page. Just look up SaphiraLuxray405, that's me. I'm planning on drawing my characters like the other authors on here. Easier than just imagining it.


	6. Chapter 6

Nightbird

Author's Note: Wow, this story has 8 favs and 11 follows. Thanks for reading everyone; it makes me happy to write stories like this. Oh, the picture you see in front of the story is Emma and what she'll become once her enhancement is complete. I have other pics I drew of her on my DeviantART page. *Name in Profile*

Disclaimer: Transformers belongs to Hasbro and whatever. Nightbird is my OC.

 _(Thoughts)_

 _ **=Speaking Cybertronian=**_

 _::comlink::_

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but there's no record of Emma Bowman ever existing."

"THAT'S FUCKING BULLSHIT! MY DAUGHTER IS OUT THERE SOMEWHERE!"

"Mrs. Bowman calm down. I honestly don't know why she isn't in the hospital databanks or anywhere else. It's like she was wiped off the face of the Earth…"

At a Police Station in Downtown Long Beach, a woman no older than 40 was pissed off. Her daughter Emma Bowman was missing and when she called her cellphone all she received was a blank signal. Now it's been over 24 hours and the police couldn't find her. Mrs. Bowman always knew that whenever her daughter didn't get her way she'd run away, so this wouldn't be the first time she did so. The police would always find her whenever this happens, but this time there was no trace of her daughter ever existing.

"Are you sure you can't find anything on her?" she asked.

"Yes I'm sure." The cop sighed and rubbed his hair. "This doesn't make any sense… Everything about her seemed to have just…vanished." The Police Officer was stumped on what to do, he knew that Emma had a bad habit of running away and he couldn't find her. Everything about her was nonexistent. He turned around in his chair and looked at Mrs. Bowman. He could tell the woman was not only upset but scared for her daughter. "Mrs. Bowman I don't know what to do, but we'll put out an Amber Alert for her. "

The older woman sighed and rubbed her head, being angry wouldn't help anything plus her daughter's done this before. They'll find her in no time. "…Alright, I trust you all to find her. Just let me know if you come across anything."

The cop nodded and smiled at her. "Don't worry, we will."

The cop watched as Mrs. Bowman left the Station, soon as she did he breathed a sigh of relief. The cop, named Aaron, honestly hoped that Emma stayed missing. He knew how controlling and verbally abusive her mother was to her, but he honestly couldn't do anything unless the girl told him about it. He felt sorry for the poor girl and hoped wherever she ran away to the people would help her. He groaned and printed out a picture of her that Mrs. Bowman gave him. Aaron didn't want to put out an Amber Alert but he had to. He whispered a prayer for her.

"God give that poor girl strength to escape her hardships…"

Outside Mrs. Bowman was sitting in her truck fuming. This was the 4th time her daughter has done this and she was outright livid. She sighed and shook her head. "Shit, I don't know what's going through that damn girl's head… Maybe it's her Autism making her do this." She started up her truck and drove off, heading for home. "I know one thing though, once they find her she's getting a belt to her behind. Honestly if she wasn't born with that retarded disability I'd have thrown her out of my house a long time ago."

Little did she realize that a purple sports car was following her for a few blocks then turned the other direction. It was a Vehicon scout named C04Y, also known as Cory and he was ordered to watch her for any kinds of suspision. He parked in a alleyway that was behind the woman's house and tuned his sensors on it. He whispered to himself.

"Jeez... After hearing about her history I understand what Emma's going through... Kinda envy her, she gets special treatment while we drones are disposible... Hopefully Shockwave can erase her memories..."

Cory stayed parked in the alley, only leaving when the mother leaves and reporting his findings back to base.

...

On the Nemesis, Emma was in the Med Bay getting a physical from Knockout. Since she's the next canidate for the Enhancing he has to make sure the little human is healthy and fit for the procedure. Emma was a bit embarriesed though, she was inside some sort of tube-like machine that was giving her a full body exam. Reason she was embarresed is because she was naked in said machine. Knockout explained to her that it won't get the nessasery data if her clothes were in the way, so she hesitantly took them off and stepped inside of the medical device. She was covering her breasts with one arm and her private area with another arm, watching as the green light scanned all over her body. She sighed and started to tap her foot.

 _(Goodness... I hope this is over soon, I don't like being naked in front of a man... Well, he's a robot doctor. Robotman doctor alien person... Ugh, getting a slight headache from this...)_

Knockout was on one of his computers checking the data the machine was sending him. He noticed that her brainwaves were abnormal and in certain areas were more active when they shouldn't be. Barricade told him that she had a glitch called 'Autism' that causes the brain to develop differently from a normal brain, and after researching about it he was amazed by the levels of this 'Autism'. Not only that she's has Hypermobility: aka double-jointed, meaning she can bend and twist her body in places that normal humans couldn't. If they did, they'd proabably tear a tendon or break an arm. Knockout learned that humans with Hypermobility have some sort of health problems, but it's rare and Emma doesn't seem to have none aside from her Mental Disorder. He'd be happy except for one thing, the machine was also sending him data on all kinds of scarring on her arms and legs. They looked like bite marks and they weren't from an animal either. He frowned as he looked through the data.

 _(Primus these are human bite marks! From the texture and shape they were caused by Emma herself... Why on Cybertron would she have reason to harm herself?)_

Knockout didn't like those findings and shut off the machine, allowing for Emma to exit and put on her clothes. He looked at her as she did so and noticed a more recent bite mark on her right forearm. Emma got her underwear and bra on and just put on her pants when she felt a warm metal finger lift up her arm. Looking up she saw Knockout's expression as he examined her arm, she tried pulling away but he held her firmly.

"Emma? Did you create these injuries yourself?" the Medic asked.

Emma looked down and didn't say anything, feeling ashamed for causing such markings on her arms and legs. When he didn't get an answer he let go of her arm and leaned down to look at her in the eye. Emma stared at him and didn't want to say anything, she didn't know why but she had this underlying fear that he'd try to restrain her from biting herself.

"Emma, there's no reason for you to be doing this to yourself. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, just promise me you won't do anything to hurt yourself. Alright?"

The girl nodded and proceeded to put on her white T-Shirt and her blue jacket on. She looked up at the Medic who was typing up something on his computer and spoke quietly.

"...I made these marks on purpose..."

Knockout turned his helm to stare at her, her voice was so quiet that he almost didn't hear her speak. Walking over he folded his arms and spoke in a soft tone. "And why did you do that to yourself?"

"...Because...it was the only way I could release my anger." Emma rubbed her arm and looked away, feeling even more ashamed that she was telling him all of this. Knockout raised an optic ridge at that, she bit herself just so she can release her anger? To him it didn't make any sense.

"Okay... Why did you feel that harming yourself was the only way to release your anger?"

He saw her wipe her eyes and look up at him, small tears starting to form. "W-well... My mom would always scold me for the most stupidest things I've done or said. If I even messed up on certain directions she'd yell and scream all kinds of horrible words at me. I couldn't hit her, so I took my anger out on myself. It was... the only way I knew how to cope."

Knockout closed his optics and vented heavily, he'd heard from Soundwave about how abusive her creator was and hearing this coming from her, he wanted to gore the pathetic human with his saw-blades. No one should belittle or abuse a sparkling or a youngling, glitched or not. In fact, he remembered some years ago before their factions headed to Earth there were some rouge Neutrals that were abusing and torturing some younglings. He and an Autobot both set aside their differances and killed the Rouge Neutrals, saving the younglings in the process. The Autobot took the younglings with him after he treated their wounds. To him, it doesn't matter if you're an Autobot or a Decepticon, you abuse a Sparkling or Youngling and you will get killed. That coding is deeply set in all Cybertronians (some more so than others) and the Medic knew that even Megatron wouldn't dare harm a Sparking, for one thing he'll raise it to be the next Decepticon leader. He inwardly chuckled at that. Opening his optics he noticed that the human femme was wiping at her eyes to prevent tears from falling. He gently picked her up and let her lean on his chassis, whispering to her.

"Emma darling, you don't have to do that anymore. If you ever get angry for any reason just punch something, Pit punch Barricade if you have to. Not only that, you'll get to take all that anger you've been bottling up out on the Autobots. Now doesn't that sound better?"

Emma sniffled and looked up at him, seeing him smile down at her. She smiled back and nodded her head. "Y-yeah, I won't have to bite myself anymore..."

"That's right." Knockout raised her so that she was at optic level with him, he spoke sternly to her. "Emma? Do not under any circumstances cause pain or inflict injuries on yourself, that's not the way to do things if you get slagged off. Am I clear?"

Emma nodded and leaned in close to the Medic's face, giving him a quick peck on the cheekplate. She giggled at his shocked expression. "I understand, thank you Doctor Knockout."

He chuckled and gently poked her side, making her laugh. "Any time little spark." He sat her down on the table and went back to his computer to finish up his medical report. When he was done he printed it out on a blank data disc and turned towards Emma, who was taking the time to look around the Med Bay. "I'm finally done with your medical report, I'm going to Shockwave's lab so I can give this to him. Wanna come with?"

She nodded and climbed on his outstreched servo. Knockout gently put her on his shoulder and exited the Med Bay, heading to Shockwave's labortory. As Emma looked around the Mech was deep in thought about something that disturbed him.

 _(Emma bites herself just to release all the anger she's had towards her creator... No, I shouldn't call her a creator, that human is nothing but a monster that deserves to die. I'd better tell Barricade to keep an optic out on little Emma, even after Shockwave completes the Enhancement and rids her of her memories she'd still might try harming herself out of anger... Which means... There might be another glitch she has that I'm not aware of... Anyway, as her doctor I need to moniter her actions, she might be a danger to herself if she's ever pushed to the limit, and Primus knows I won't let that happen...)_

"Doctor Knockout?"

Snapping out of his thoughts, he realized he was standing in front of the door to Shockwave's lab and was just standing there for around 2 minutes. He glanced at the human on his shoulder and saw a worried look on her face. "Are you alright? You zoned out and I was calling you for two minutes."

He lightly shook his helm and knocked on the door. "I'm fine, just had a lot on my CPU is all. Nothing to worry about."

"Oh... Okay then." Satified with that answer, Emma leaned back on his shoulder and watched as the huge Purple Mech answered the door. She'll admit that the Decepticon still creeped her out since he only had one eye, err.. optic. Knockout could admit the same thing, sometimes the scientist creeped him out. "Hello Shockwave, I'm finished with little Emma's Physical and here are the results." He handed him the data disc and watched as he quickly skimmed through it, then put it in his subspace.

"The results from the physical are satisfactory, Emma's Enchancement procedure will begin in two days."

Hearing that, Emma smiled and spoke up excitedly. "In two days? That's great! I wonder what I'll look like? Will I have some robotic parts like that guy on the 'Terminator' movie?"

Shockwave let out a light chuckle at the human's excitement. "I think you will be pleased with the results Emma Bowman."

The girl was bouncing with excitement, temporarily forgetting about how creepy the Scientist was. She then had a thought and remembered that she asked him to erase her memories, she felt the need to be spesific.

"Um, Shockwave? I forgot to tell you that um... When I asked you to erase my memories I only meant the bad ones, I'd like my current ones to stay."

Shockwave nodded. "I knew what you meant when you said you wanted your memories deleted. Do not worry, as I will only delete the ones that are deemed unfit to remember."

Emma bowed respectfully to him. "Thank you Shockwave! You are the best!"

The scientist's optic glowed a little, his way of smiling at her. He closed the door to his lab, leaving a shocked Knockout just standing there with a 'WTF' look on his faceplates.

"Uhh... okay... All the years I've known him I've never seen him so... so happy."

Emma tilted her head, a confused look on her face. "Really? I honestly can't tell if he was happy or not, considering he has only one eye..."

Knockout looked at her and chuckled. "Trust me, that Mech is happy. I think you've might've grown on him somewhat."

"I think so! Haha!"

The medic stretched out his limbs, being careful not to jostle Emma around too much. "Since Barricade is out on patrol and won't be back for 2 hours I'm going to relax."

"Okay... Um, is there a room where the Dececpticons go to relax? I'd like to watch some TV for a bit."

"Of course, that'd be the Rec Room. Let's head there shall we? I'm in the mood for some High-Grade Energon." He walked towards the Rec Room and Emma snickered at the Medic. Barricade told her about Energon and the different kinds of the substance so she knew that High-Grade was their version of Alcohol. "Don't drink too much!"

He had to snicker at that. "Oh please darling, I can hold my drinks unlike some bots here I know. I.E Barricade is one of them."

"He gets drunk that easily?"

Knockout smirked. "That's right. In fact, let me share with you some of the most funniest stories of him getting Overcharged! Don't tell him I told you."

She giggled and nodded. "I promise!"

And so Knockout shared the most embarrising stories of Barricade getting drunk to Emma, who was laughing all the way to the Rec Room.

Barricade meanwhile was driving in Downtown LA when he let out a sputtering noise. To the people walking around it sounded like he had engine trouble but it was the Cybertronian version of a sneeze. Frenzy was in the backseat messing with his new cellphone when he heard his friend sneeze.

 _ **=Hahahahaha! Getting a cold there Barri barri?=**_

The Mustang made his engine growl. _**=No I'm not, shut up. It's just this planet's weather affecting my sensors.=**_

 _ **=Oh sure it is! HAHA!=**_

Barricade slammed on his brakes, making the little Mini-con squeak in surprise and slam up against the windshield. He crawled in the passenger seat and rubbed his face, grumbling at him. _**=Prick...=**_

The Mech only chuckled as he continued driving, ignoring Frenzy's cursing at him.

AN: I know, a little short but I was busy and didn't have time to make this chapter until now. Read and Review!


	7. Chapter 7

Nightbird

Author's Note: I'm really surprised that people like this story. I'm happy that you all are enjoying it! Most of this story is really hard for me to write (which is why it took a while...) but it's all worthwhile just to see you all enjoy reading. :D I was going to add a chapter on Emma and Barricade getting to know one another but decided to do a timeskip. It was better that way and didn't muck up what I have planned. Enough of my rambling, on with the next chapter!

Disclaimer: Last time I'm writing this, Transformers belongs to Hasbro and whatever. Nightbird is my OC.

 _(Thoughts)_

 ** _=Speaking Cybertronian=_**

 _:comlink:_

It's been at least two days since Emma joined up with the Decepticons and so far she was enjoying herself. Most of the Vehicons even started to like her after a while and often talked to her about anything that they found interesting. Emma quickly found out that the Vehicons are really curious Decepticons, as she's often asked about what human culture is like and anything else that's interesting to them. Of course she told them about certain things humans did but she didn't know much besides what she learned about in school, which was okay with them. They were happy to learn different things from her and she was happy that she found some new friends in them. True at the beginning most didn't like her but quickly warmed up to her once they heard about her backstory. They couldn't believe how much she had to go through thanks to her so-called mother. She was like them in a way, not appreciated or praised enough and sometimes abused by the other Decepticons on board. The Vehicons vowed that even after Emma got enhanced they would protect her any way they can, even giving up their very lives for her.

The Mustang Barricade grew a bit close to the little human femme in the past few days, to him she was like a friend he never had (Not that he'll admit that of course) and he could tell that Emma felt the same way. After thinking about it the Mech decided to become her Guardian which surprised Starscream and Blackout. They teased him on it and he only shrugged it off, saying that the only reason he's her guardian is because even after the Enhancement she'll still need protection and nothing more. (But in reality he did that just so he could protect his new friend.) Emma was happy to know that Barricade was her protector. To her he was like a Guardian Angel that saved her from a lifetime of misery, she'd tell that to him but is too shy to say anything.

Speaking of Enhancement today is the day for Emma to get enhanced by Shockwave. The girl was a bit nervous; okay she was scared as hell, and hid in part of Barricade's chest armor. Emma never liked getting surgery and was even scared of getting her tonsils out when she was little. Barricade was at the entrance to Shockwave's lab and was trying to coax her out of his armor.

"Emma there's nothing to be afraid of, come on out."

She peeked out from his armor and rapidly shook her head then hid again. The Mech vented and almost jumped when Megatron arrived and spoke to him.

"What's the matter Barricade? Why is the femme not undergoing the procedure?" he asked.

The Mustang could've sweat-dropped at that moment as he stammered a bit, trying to explain why Emma was acting this way. "Uhh... I-I'm trying to coax her to go inside but she's scared for some reason..."

Megatron glanced down and saw the human girl peek out at him with fear in her eyes, but that fear wasn't directed at him. Curious, he leaned down and spoke in a soft yet raspy voice. "Emma is there any reason why you show fear? As far as I could tell you were excited for the procedure to be done."

Emma glanced at the door to the Lab, then back at Megatron. "U-um... I'm... I'm scared..."

"Why are you scared?" Megatron asked.

"Uh, well... T-this Enhancement is like surgery right? I-I don't like surgery... I had to go under the knife just to-to remove my tonsils when I was little..." Emma hugged part of Barricade's armor and shook a little, trying not to cry. "I'm... I'm scared of going under the knife..."

Megatron was a bit perplexed at this, he's never heard of such a strange fear before. Looking at Barricade he saw the Mech carefully rubbing her cheek, trying to calm her down. He smirked and decided to use reverse psychology on her. "Well Emma, if you're going to help us with the Autobots then you need to get enhanced. Otherwise we can just return you to your creator and find a better replacement..."

"NO!" Emma jumped in Barricade's servo and pleaded fearfully at the Decepticon leader. "I don't want to return to that woman! She'll just yell and scream at me again! Please don't make me go back! Don't make me go!"

Barricade saw the look on his charge's face, it was full of fear of going back to her creator and that made him angry to see her so distressed. He held her close to his chest and glared at Megatron, realizing what he was trying to do. Megatron saw the Mech glaring at him but ignored it as he spoke. "If you don't want to go back home then I'd suggest you proceed with the Enhancement. We wouldn't want a potential warrior like yourself to be sent home and be abused by that pathetic excuse of a mother now... would we?" He grinned when Emma shook her head wildly and wiped the tears from her eyes. Megatron knew that this human was perfect in accomplishing his goal and no way will he allow anything to stand in the way. Emma wiped her eyes of the tears and sighed a bit, she was scared of the surgery yes but was even more scared of them taking her back home. If she wanted to have a better life then she has to do it, no matter how terrified she was of going under the knife.

"I-I'll do it! But please don't send me back there!"

"Good Femme. I'll be looking forward to seeing your new look afterwards."

The Dark Lord turned and walked away, satisfied to have coaxed her into doing the procedure. Barricade watched his leader walk away with a frown on his faceplates, he didn't like that scare tactic he used on Emma and if he was just another Decepticon he would've throttled him. Looking down in his servo he saw the girl taking deep breaths to calm herself. "You alright Emma?"

She nodded and looked up at him, a small smile on her face. "Yeah... I'm alright. I honestly got scared when he said that-that he was going to find another person to take my place..."

Barricade snorted at that. "Don't worry, he only said that just to scare ya. He wasn't really going to replace you."

"Really? Still... that was mean." She hugged one of his digits and pouted a little, a bit peeved that she fell for that scare tactic. Barricade however didn't know if his leader was serious about replacing her that time but decided to not mention it. Looking at the entrance to the lab he knocked on it and the door slid open.

"Ready girlie?"

"Y-yeah, I'm ready..."

The Mech walked inside and Emma took a chance to look around. Everywhere you looked there was all kinds of machines, tools and who knows what else surrounding the Lab. Everything was neatly organized and nothing was cluttered or out of place. Her eyes then landed on Shockwave standing near a table and next to him was Knockout, the latter smiling when he saw the two enter.

"Hello darling! Ready for your procedure?" The Medic cheerfully asked.

Emma nodded and didn't say anything, which got the Medic wondering what was wrong. The Mustang rubbed her back to calm her down. "She's just nervous is all, turns out she isn't too keen on 'going under the knife' as she puts it."

"Aww, well don't worry little spark. We'll make sure that nothing bad happens while you're under." said Knockout.

"O-okay" she said in a small voice.

Shockwave turned around and pressed a button on the table, raising it a bit to reveal a bed that Emma could lay on. After that some cabling along with other surgical tools appeared from a smaller door on the table. He turned his helm and spoke in his cold monotone voice. "I have calculated that the surgery will be 100% successful with no harmful repercussions. Not only that the results will be beneficial to your health." Typing something up on his computer he looked at the Mech holding the human girl. "Place her on the table Barricade."

Barricade lowered his servo near the table, watching as Emma jumped off of it and walked towards the bed, laying down on it. Suddenly two straps appeared and wrapped themselves around her, preventing her from moving. The girl started to panic until Knockout explained what was happening. "Relax dear, those are just to make sure you stay still while in stasis. It's a safety precaution."

That info did relax her a little, but she was still scared yet at the same time excited. She didn't know what was going to happen once she woke up but she couldn't wait to see her new body. Emma looked up at her Guardian who had a worried look on his face and smiled at her.

"I'm a little scared, but I'll be okay Barricade."

Barricade had a small smile on his faceplates, his charge was scared out of her wits but put on a brave face to let him know that she'll be alright. He was planning on staying to watch but Shockwave walked up to him.

"It would be better if you waited outside until the enhancement is over. You'll just be in the way here."

The Mustang frowned at that but seeing little Emma's face and the happy yet scared look on it made him want to stay, just to make sure she survived the Enhancement is all. Knockout patted him on the shoulder and smiled at him. "Relax Cade', Emma is in good servos. Besides she's a brave little femme and doesn't need her Guardian looming over her every minute."

"...Alright...I'll hold you both to that."

Barricade looked at Emma who was still smiling at him and waving with her hand since her arm was wrapped up at the moment. He gave her a quick smile then turned and left the lab, the door closing behind him. After he left Knockout chuckled and shook his helm, pressing a button for a long clear tube to appear and fix itself on Emma's face. It looked like some sort of advanced breathing mask.

"He doesn't show it but he's worried about you, he's getting to be quite the softy there."

The girl giggled at that. "I don't think so, he's just shy about showing his feelings is all."

"Yeah he's shy all right, hehe. Now Emma this breathing apparatus is going to be filled with a special gas that'll make you sleep so you won't feel any pain. You understand?"

Emma nodded and watched as the Medic typed up something on a nearby computer, then she suddenly smelled something sweet. It was the gas filling up the breathing tube and it strangely smelled like a mixture of strawberries and sweet tarts. Her eyelids got heavy as she breathed in the gas, it was making her very sleepy. For a minute she didn't notice Knockout speaking to her.

"Emma? Can you count backwards from 100 for me?"

She nodded again and started counting backwards, her body feeling heavier as she felt even sleepier than usual. She was on the number 95 when she slowly succumbed to sleep, her final thought of her guardian and best friend.

 _(Mr. Cade...)_

Seeing that she was in a deep sleep Knockout turned off the gas but left the clear breathing tube on. Shockwave had his special tools ready and turned to Knockout, who was checking the girl's vitals to make sure they were steady.

"Let us begin."

...

~3 hours later~

Barricade getting worried was an understatement, he didn't show it but he was downright scared and nervous for his young charge. He would've stayed by the Lab door for longer but Starscream needed him to go on patrol and search for any Autobots in a certain area of the city. He didn't want to leave Emma behind and made Frenzy stay behind to wait for Emma's surgery to be over. Soon as he arrived back to base he transformed, sent in his daily report to Starscream then quickly walked over to Shockwave's laboratory.

 _(Can't believe I'm getting worried... She'll be fine... That girl has proven herself to be able to handle certain situations... But the look on her face when she got scared, over surgery no less... Primus she looked like a helpless Sparkling... Dammit! I can't believe I'm feeling like this!)_

Barricade didn't realize that since he decided to become Emma's Guardian his Guardian Protocols activated and they wanted him to make sure that she was alright. Arriving at the entrance to the Lab he saw Frenzy sitting there along with his brother Rumble, both Mini-bots looked up and waved at him.

"Hey Bari Bari! What up?" asked Frenzy.

"Is Emma's procedure over yet?" he asked.

"Ummm..." Frenzy looked back at the locked door and shook his helm. "I don't think so, haven't heard nuttin' in a while..."

"We've just been sittin' here playing with our new phone." said Rumble. "Don't know how long the squishy's surgery will take."

The Mech vented a little and glanced at the door, he didn't show it on his face but he was starting to get really worried. He didn't know how long the Procedure would take but he prayed to Primus that little Emma would come out of it with no problems. And this Mech hardly ever prays to anything, since he's not that religious. Frenzy and Rumble glanced at the Mech and spoke on their private Coms.

 _:I've never seen Barricade act like this... Is he worried about the Squishy?: Rumble_

 _:Yeah, he's worried. Strange how he cares so much for Emma.: Frenzy_

 _:Maybe his Guardian Protocols activated or something? If they did then maybe that's why he's acting so distressed: Rumble_

 _:Nah, he ain't distressed Rumble. Just worried. Everything will be fine.: Frenzy_

 _:Okay then...: Rumble_

The two Mini-bots weren't at all worried about the human, they knew that she'll be fine once it was over. They took turns playing on their new phone (Soundwave got tired of them fighting over it so he made them share it) while Barricade stood outside the lab door waiting patiently for it to open. 30 minutes later it did and everyone saw Knockout exit carrying a strange glass-like sphere with something inside of it. Barricade got in front of him and saw that the glass sphere was opaque, he couldn't see inside of it which caused him to panic a little.

"What happened?! Where's Emma?!"

Knockout frowned and made a shushing sound, whispering harshly at him. "Quiet will you?! Emma is still in stasis and I don't want her to wake up."

Staring at the glass sphere the Mustang realized that the human was inside of it. Frenzy and Rumble climbed on the Mech and sat on his shoulders to see what the Medic was holding. "The squishy's in there?" whispered Rumble.

Knockout nodded and quickly walked towards his Med Bay, with everyone following him. When they arrived they saw him sit the sphere down and connect it with some computers that were designed to regulate a Cybertronian's sparkbeat and vitals. When he was done the glass Sphere glowed a little but it was still opaque, no one can see inside of it yet. Barricade was going to ask if Emma was alright but Knockout provided the answer.

"Don't worry Barricade, little Emma is fine. The Enhancement was a success."

Letting out a breath he didn't know he was holding the Mech was relieved to hear that she was going to be okay. "That's good... But how come I can't see her? And why is she in that thing?"

"Her body is healing and is a bit swollen from the surgery, so this glass sphere is like a healing chamber for her. She'll be deep in stasis for about two weeks while she heals up. That's why it looks cloudy."

"I see... Did Shockwave delete those bad memories of hers?"

"Affirmative."

Everyone turned to see Shockwave enter the Med Bay with a Data Tablet in one of his servos. He walked up to the glass sphere and checked the vitals of the sleeping human inside, satisfied he turned to the others and spoke up. "I used a version of the Cordial Psychic Patch to delete those unfit memories of hers. How that will affect her personality upon awakening is still to be determined."

Barricade nodded and stared at the glass sphere. He wondered if Emma would be herself or be a different person once she woke up. Either way he'll have to wait until she's healed to find out the results. Frenzy and Rumble climbed down from his shoulders and stood next to the glass bubble-looking sphere, gently poking the hard surface.

"So she's recharging in there?" asked Frenzy.

Knockout nodded and went to another part of the Med Bay to get something, when he returned he had an I.V Fluid Drop that had a light red and blue color. Rumble tilted his helm as he watched the Medic hook it up to the sphere.

"What the frag is that?" he asked.

"Special Energon that Shockwave created. It'll help in healing Emma's body, not only that it'll slowly mix with her blood so that she'll be able to consume Energon if she so wishes."

"Ohhh... I can share my Energon Cookies with her then!" said Rumble.

"Ooh! I can give her some of my High-Grade too!" said Frenzy.

"She'll be having Low-grade only and that's it." Barricade snorted a bit when he heard Frenzy whine about it. In Cybertronian years Emma is still a minor so no way in the Pits is she drinking that, not on his watch. The Mech gently rubbed the glass that kept his charge inside, he wanted to see what she looked like. Knockout saw the look on his face and patted his shoulder, making him glance up at the other Mech. "In the past few days I can tell that she's grown on you. Don't worry Barricade, as I said before Emma will be alright. A bit sore once she awakens but alright nonetheless."

"...Okay." The Mustang gazed at the sphere for a little while longer before leaving and heading back to his room, with the two mini-bots following. Now that he knew that Emma was going to be okay he was a bit excited to see her new form. Shockwave was on his Data Tablet and was testing the unconscious girl's brainwaves, his single optic glowing a little brighter once he got the results back.

"Interesting... It appears that Emma Bowman's brainwaves have doubled in the past 5 minutes..."

Knockout chuckled and looked at the Scientist. "Well of course they would be, her mind is freed from those tormenting memories and is now free to grow and expand. Why she'll be even smarter and possibly more in control of herself." He suddenly frowned a little as he looked towards the sphere, venting a little. "At least I hope so... that glitch of hers is amazing but..."

Shockwave looked up from his tablet to stare at Knockout. "But what?"

"I noticed that she causes physical harm to herself whenever she gets upset. Emma told me herself that she does that. I hope that this Enhancement corrects that glitch of hers..."

"That could explain why she had human bite marks on the outer layer of her epidermal skin. I believe that once she awakes her glitch will be under control."

Knockout nodded slightly and sat in his chair next to one of the computers. "I hope to Primus that it does Shockwave... I'll be monitoring her readings for a while just to make sure everything goes alright."

"Acknowledged, call me if any changes occur."

With that Shockwave left the Med Bay and headed back to his lab. Meanwhile Barricade decided to head to the Rec Room for some Energon, not wanting to go to his room anymore. Once arriving he saw some of the Vehicons there enjoying their break before heading back to work. Getting his fuel he sat down at an empty table and slowly drank it, getting lost in his own thoughts. Soundwave and his minicons plus Mechanimals arrived shortly afterwards and sat next to him but he paid them no mind. His processor was on his charge and even though he was relieved that the Enhancement was a success he was a little pissed off, mainly at her creator. He couldn't imagine all the years she suffered while under her care, and when he met her a few days ago she looked like life has given up on her and left her to endure the verbal torture of something she probably thought she deserved. It was enough to make him want to kill that so called "Creator" of hers. He let out a small growl that caught the attention of Soundwave, who turned his helm and stared at him. He heard it since he was sitting close to the young Mech and wondered what could be upsetting him, he tried looking into his mind but for some reason it was erratic, he couldn't read anything from it. After a few minutes the Mustang saw him staring at him and frowned.

"What?"

Soundwave tilted his helm, asking a silent question. Barricade seemed to understand what he was trying to say and shook his helm.

"It's nothing, just a lot on my Processor is all…"

Soundwave just stared at him for a moment then activated a sound recording, with him sounding like Starscream for a bit.

" _Are you sure it's nothing and not something you can't be bothered with later?"_

Barricade groaned a bit at the voice of the Seeker, out of all voice recordings he couldn't have picked a better one? "...Just thinking about Emma is all. It pisses me off that her dammed Creator treated her like scrap throughout her life. If I could I'd just go over there and kill her right now."

Ravage and Laserbeak were eating some meat-flavored Energon and heard Barricade talk about the human's creator. At first they didn't like the human femme, (since she beat them up in the most embarrassing way possible) but after hearing about what she went though they did feel a bit bad for her. Ravage leered at Frenzy and asked a question. "Hey Dummy, what happened to the squishy?"

Frenzy glared at the Jaguar and yelled at him. "I ain't no dummy! And Emma's fine, Enhancement a success. Plus she's also in some weird glass bubble lookin' thing."

"Oh. So when she gonna wake up?" the Jaguar asked.

Frenzy shrugged and drunk his Energon. "Don't know, probably in a few weeks. I can't see what she looks like since that bubble is all cloudy."

"Well once she wakes up I wanna rematch!" screeched Laserbeak. "She'll regret calling me a pet!"

Frenzy and Rumble snickered at that and had to dodge a swipe to the helm by both Mechanimals, who were still upset over how the human girl defeated them the last time. Barricade wasn't paying them no mind and just stared into his cup of Energon. Even though he couldn't read his mind at the moment, Soundwave knew how the young Mech felt. If anything were to happen to his Mini-cons and Mechanimals he'd be devastated. He put a servo on his back and let a small smile grace his usually emotionless face, making Barricade smile a little at him.

"At least I know how you feel now... With those cassettes of yours worrying you half the time." he whispered.

Soundwave nodded and got up to get more Energon, leaving the scout alone with his thoughts.

...

On an Island off the Pacific Ocean was Diego Garcia, home to NEST Base and is where the Autobots live on. Everyone on the island was having a day off since no Decepticon activity was reported. Some of the more hardened solders didn't like the lack of activity so they kept up their training just in case. Some of the solders and humans were in the Rec Room enjoying themselves and relaxing, taking the oppotunity to unwind after so many battles against the Decepticons. One Autobot named Sideswipe was watching the news when an Amber Alert suddenly popped up. Curious he turned up the volume and listened in to what the male reporter was saying.

 _"We follow up our story with Breaking News, so far it's been a month since these three people have disappeared under unusual circumstances. Police have yet to find out where they could be at and their family and friends are begging for your help. And now, we add a forth to the list of missing persons. This one only a teenager, here is her picture."_

The news then showed a picture of a young african-american girl with blue eyes, light grey bangs and dark brown hair. But something was strange about the girl in the picture Sideswipe noticed. He didn't have time to wonder what as the News Reporter spoke again.

 _"Her name is Emma Bowman and is only 17 years old. She also has Autism and is known by her mother for running away at times and is always found by the local police and returned. She ran away three days ago for reasons unknown and this time she didn't return. Her mother is pleading for help in finding her missing daughter."_

The news then cut away to show an older woman in her late 40's with her hair pulled back and braided, leaving her bangs free to cover most of her face. She was crying and in distress over her missing daughter.

" _Please someone help me find my baby girl! Thanks to her mental disability she always wanders off and often runs away at times. I'm so scared that something has happened to her! Emma if you're watching this please come back home! Mama is worried and scared about you!"_

It then cut back to the News reporter with the missing people pictured on the side of the screen along with a phone number to call. _"So far Police haven't had any leads on any of the missing persons and think that the recent disappearance of Emma could be related to the other three pictured here. Police are advsing everyone to watch their surroundings and be on the lookout for anything suspicious. If you find out anything on these recent events please call the number on your screen, we need your help to find these people and return them home to their families. Remember, you can remain anonymous. I'm Mark Harrision and this is Eyewitness News at 7. Back to you Trisha."_

The news then went on to talk about the upcoming weather and other events, some of the solders who were watching the news felt sorry for the mother. Some of them have family members with mental disablities so they can relate to how she feels. Sideswipe did a quick search on Autism and other Mental Disorders and he saw how similar they are to someone of his kind having a Processor Glitch. For example his friend Prowl with his Logic Glitch and Red Alert with his Paranoia Glitch. Even though they have these glitches they are still respected by other Cybertronians, hell if someone met them for the first time they wouldn't know that they have a Processor Glitch. Sideswipe felt bad for the human girl and hoped their local police would find her and the others soon. He heard one solder talking to his friends about it and listened in.

"Damn, that's the forth one this month. I feel bad for that girl..."

"Me too man, I hope they find the bastard that kidnapped them all." said another solder.

"This really hits home for me..." said one other solder. "I have a cousin back in New Jersey with a Mental Disorder and he would sometimes wander off if he sees anything related to video games. He doesn't watch out for his surroundings and he once got lost because my dumb ass brother didn't watch him. I pray to God they find that girl..."

"She's known for running away? I wonder why that is?" a solder asked.

"People with Mental Disorders don't think like we do, who knows what's going on in their heads? Hell some of them have the mind of a 5 year old or act brain dead, or are just born retarded. Sad really."

Sideswipe kept listening to their conversation and felt like he had to say something. "You know Gary, that's not entirely true. Some Cybertronians are born with Glitches and they don't act like sparklings."

The solder, named Gary looked up at him. "You mean your kind have people that are retards too?"

"Yes, but we don't call them 'retards'. It's called a Processor Glitch and those who have them don't have the mindset of a 5 year old."

Gary stared at him and folded his arms. "Alright, who do you know that are born mentally disabled?"

Sideswipe grinned and pointed to the far corner of the room, the small group turned to look and saw the Tactical Officer Prowl speaking with Junior Medic Red Alert. "Prowl has this Logic Glitch where if he's told something that doesn't make sense or isn't logical his processor will go in a loop and crash, causing him to go into Stasis and fall to the floor. He'll have a helm ache afterwards. Red Alert for some reason has a Paranoia Glitch and if you tell him something and twist it in a way that is believeable he'll freak out over it. Example, if you tell him that Snowballs are baby Snowmen he'll freak out and try to save them."

The solders chuckled at that part while some shook their heads, trying to hold in their laughter. Gary snorted and looked back up at Sideswipe, who had a grin on his faceplates. "Is that why you and your brother always end up in the Brig?"

Sideswipe rubbed the back of his helm and nodded. "Yeah, we take advantage of their Glitches and use it to pull pranks on them." He stared back at the TV as a commercial was playing and frowned a little, a thoughtful look on his face. "You gotta wonder though, out of all the pictures they showed of the missing people only that Emma girl's was sad looking. Plus she keeps running away from home. I hope nothing bad is going on..."

"What makes you say that?" a solder asked.

"Back on Cybertron anyone that is born with a Processor Glitch gets treated the same as if they never had one. They get treated with respect, hell most get special treatment depending on the Glitch." He went quiet for a while before speaking again, in a low dangerous voice tis time. "Any Mech or Femme found abusing or mistreating a bot with a Glitch are the lowest of the low."

Gary sat up straighter and spoke up to the Mech. "So what would you do if you found out that the girl was being abused? Would you kill the mother?"

Sideswipe didn't say anything for a few minutes, making some of the men wonder what he was thinking. The red Mech then looked down at them with an unreadable expression. "Well, if the mother wasn't a human then I'd run them through with my swords. No one should mistreat someone just because of a Glitch they have." The small group of solders stared at the Lamborghini, a bit shocked to hear that coming from him. True some humans have abused the Mentaly disabled and have gone to jail for it but to kill them? They looked at each other then back at Sideswipe, who was now paying attention to the Maury Show that just came on. "Hey Sides? You'd seriously kill someone if they abused a Mentally Challenged person?" asked a solder.

"If they were Cybertronian then yes, but if it's a human then I can't. Optimus says we can't harm humans no matter what happens." He glanced back down at them and smiled. "But he didn't say anything about getting local humans to beat them up for us."

"That I agree with." the solder who said that was named Kenny and was the one who spoke about his disabled cousin eariler. "Shit if I find out that someone was abusing a Disabled person I'd beat their ass, that shit ain't right."

Most of the solders in the little group agreed and left it at that as they watched TV with Sideswipe. Little did they know Optimus was listening in on their conversation and overheard the newscast from eariler. He vented a little, saddened that a young girl such as that one was kidnapped along with the others. He whispered a prayer to those that were missing and hoped they all be found soon.

"May Primus keep them safe..."

...

~Two Weeks Later~

"That's it darling, take it easy."

The Medic Knockout was currently helping Emma get familiar with her new body she woke up in. Two hours ago the human girl woke up from Stasis and the glass-like bubble she was kept in opened up, alerting the Medic to her awakening. He commed Barricade to come to the Med Bay so he could see what she looked like. When Barricade walked in and saw her he was shocked at how different she looked.

"Emma?"

Emma had dark purple armor covering her torso all the way up to her chest with some light to dark pink blade-like extensions on the waist. Her belly button was showing and there were some light pink decorations covering the armor on her chest. Her head was mostly covered in a ninja-like armor that stretched down to part of her shoulders and her collarbone, ending with a light pink diamond in the middle of her chest with a red bio-light in the middle. On the sides of her head was two round audio devices that acted like a Cybertronian's Audio Receptors, her face was untouched and a part of her face can be covered with a retractable battle mask. Her eyes were a bright yellow color instead of the usual soft baby blue she was born with. They were enhanced to be better at seeing things more clearly and she can make them glow in the dark to provide extra light or dim them. Part of her forearms was also covered in metal-like armor but it looked like it was a part robotic, only the front of her hands were still flesh and they ended with long black claws. Almost her entire legs have been reformatted to also look robotic, from where part of her thigh ended where it was still flesh there was bright red bio-lights that covered her upper thigh and her lower leg. She had light pink leg spikes that started at her knees and curved upwards, they wrapped around part of her lower legs which was jet black and ending in heel-like boots. Most of her hair had to be shaven off so the rest of it was pulled into a long ponytail. Due to the after-effects of using Energon in her body part of her hair turned red while the rest stayed a light greyish brown. Only her face, parts of her shoulders and chest, her upper arms, belly-button, and upper thighs were exposed, still made of skin. Both sides of her arms had the Decepticon logo branded on it, like a tattoo. Barricade vented sharply when he laid his optics on her, she was truly a sight to behold.

"Wow…"

Emma turned to look at the new Mech that entered the room, she had to focus her newly enhanced eyes to look at him. She took in every detail as she scanned him, from his peds to his arms that ended in claw-like hands-no servos her brain corrected, to his helm. Her new techno-organic brain was able to process things 70 times faster than normal, unusual for a human but not Emma. She was fully Techno-Organic. As she stared at him the Mustang wondered if she still remembered him.

"Emma? Do you recognize me?"

Hearing his voice caused a small smile to appear on her face as she turned to fully face him. "Mr. Cade…"

Letting out a breath he didn't know he held in, he smiled and leaned down to look at her closely taking in all of her new features. He didn't even mind her calling him by his human name in the presence of the Medic, who was watching with a smirk on his face. "Oh Primus, look at you… You're beautiful. How do you feel?"

Emma chuckled lightly at the complement and looked down at herself, frowning a little bit. She could see that parts of her body was still swollen in some areas and felt little pain. "I'm… alright. Just a little sore…"

"Just take it easy okay?" Barricade lifted up a clawed digit and gently touched her face, chuckling when she giggled from the contact and lightly gripped it with her own clawed hands. For two whole weeks Barricade visited the Med Bay and sat next to the glass-like stasis pod, watching out for any movement from inside. Sometimes he would talk to it knowing that the human girl was still in stasis, but when asked why he did that from Starscream, he simply said that he somehow knew it would help with her recovery. The Medic confirmed this and pointed out that her brainwaves would double each time someone spoke to her. The femme reached out a hand, wanting to touch her Guardian's face. The young Mech let Emma touch his faceplate with her clawed hand, it felt warm to the touch and even though it was made of metal, felt like hardened silk under her fingers. Knockout was watching the exchange quietly, he was glad that the Enhancement was a success and was happy that little Emma's healing process went well. He already commed Shockwave that she was awake and the Scientist was on his way to see the results of the experiment. The Medic watched the exchanged between them for a few minutes before he spoke. "Emma? Do you remember anything before you woke up?"

The girl looked at him and scrunched up her face a little, all she could remember was meeting Barricade and the Decepticons and being promised a new life. Everything else was a blank, like it had been erased. "I... remember meeting you all... But... Not much else. How come I can't remember what happened beforehand?"

"When I brought you here you requested to have your memories erased." said Barricade. "You didn't want to remember anything about your past life because it was too painful for you."

"I see... That explains why there seems to be gaps in my memory." Emma slowly sat down on a human sized bed that was next to the stasis pod and rubbed her arm, lightly wincing from the contact. "Ugh... I'm still sore..."

Knockout chuckled and handed her a small glass of Energon that was green in color. "Drink this, it'll heal your body faster. It's Medical-grade Energon."

The femme took the glass and slowly drank it, making a disgusted face afterwards. "This tastes like slag."

Hearing that got both Mechs laughing, the way she said it made it sound like she's been one of their own for eons. Emma didn't get why they were laughing but shrugged it off thinking it was nothing. "How long was I in... Stasis?"

Knockout calmed down from his laughter before he answered. "Around two weeks, it was necessary for your body to heal itself properly. It's still healing up now which is why you are still swollen."

She nodded and turned her head when the Med Bay doors opened, seeing Shockwave enter and walk towards them. She remembered this particular Mech, he was the one that preformed the Enhancement surgery on her. Shockwave saw Emma sitting on the bed and took out a Medical Scanner and preformed a scan on her. When he was done and got the results his single optic brightened up a little.

"Remarkable... Emma's body is healing itself at a rapid rate and is accepting the Energon in her system. Her brainwaves have also increased since the deletion of her memories."

Barricade looked at him and stood up from his crouched position. "So everything's good? Emma won't have any future problems?"

"Nope! I keep telling you that she'll be fine Cade'. Honestly you worry too much." snickered Knockout.

"Shut it Medic..." Barricade grumbled.

Emma was listening to the Mechs talk and had a frown on her face, for some reason she didn't like the name they kept referring her to. In fact she hated it, it reminded her of something that she hated but with her memories erased she didn't know what nor cared about it. Thinking for a moment she thought about a better name for herself, one that suited her perfectly. She was snapped out of her thoughts when her Guardian called her.

"Something wrong Emma?"

She let out a light growl, surprising the Mechs in the room. She stared at them for a bit then at her hands, flexing the sharp metallic claws on them. After a few moments of silence she answered them in a low voice.

"I don't like that name... From now on call me Nightbird."

The Mechs in the room glanced at each other, only Barricade smiled and folded his arms across his chest. "Nightbird... Yeah, I like that name."

"I'll admit it does suit you little one." said Knockout. He had a smirk on his faceplates when the girl glared at him, albeit in a playful way. Shockwave stared at her before nodding, also agreeing on the new name change.

"Since you will be starting a new life here, a name change is logical. You wish to go by that name?"

The femme nodded, glad to have chosen a perfect name for herself. "Yes. Nightbird is my name..." She quickly flexed her claws again, somehow making them longer and stood up, shredding her bed into pieces. Once she was done the bedding was all over the place and she cracked her knuckles, satified with the amount of strength she possessed. Knockout whistled, impressed with her display of power and Barricade grinned, showing his somewhat sharp denta. Shockwave only stared at her but was recording everything into his Data Pad to study later on. The girl then turned around to look at them, her yellow eyes glowing with power and she had a light smirk on her face as she flexed her claws.

"...and that'll be the _last_ thing those Autobots hear... before I slaughter them..."


End file.
